Beauty of Rain

This morning I had a moment to pause and read the chapter on Rain in Sam’s book Nature’s Messages of Peace. It struck me how often we miss the real beauty that is around us by not taking time to enjoy what the Creator has placed there for us to enjoy. Here’s a quote from the book.

“What amazing wonders we find in small bits of Nature!

We need not confine our seeking to great canyons, towering mountain ranges, ponderous glaciers, and staggering celestial phenomena.

I remember well a day when a steady downpour held us within the cabin. For more than an hour I sat entranced by the spectacle of raindrops on one tiny branch of a Norway Pine. There was something so orderly in the way the drops crept to the end of each pine needle, paused for a moment, and then jumped into space. Unexpectedly the sun broke through, its rays touching the branch I had been watching. It would be hard to conceive anything more beautiful than that simple picture: a single pine branch with rain-drops on it! Yet, no cluster of diamonds was ever more brilliant, and no symbol of any magnitude could better suggest the beauty and orderliness of Nature.”

The Philosopher of the Forest

Why the Need to Produce a Film on Sam’s Life

Sigurd Olson was a contemporary of Sam Campbell. While both men loved nature and were conservationists, Sig went the route of politics while Sam went the way of people’s hearts through books, lectures and films.

Robert Olson, Sig’s youngest son, personally knew Sam. He helped pack some of the things Sam needed for his trips into the boundary waters when Sam stopped by his dad’s shop. 

Robert took time for the interview because he believes that Sam’s philosophy and story should be told and not forgotten. Here’s a short snip from the interview where Robert gives the importance of keeping Sam’s story alive.

Thank God for Silence!

Tonight I was reading through Sam’s book, “Nature’s Messages of Peace” published in 1937 and ran across this short but very powerful thought.

    “Is it not true that in the brightness of day we often see the least, and in the midst of many sounds we hear the least?

   How often, in the night, have I drifted in my canoe over the still surface of the lake, and realized that in the light of darkness I was looking upon a thousand suns, each one greater than ours; and in the deep, deep silence listening to glorious spiritual messages, to which the slightest sound would render me dull or deaf.

   In my prayers of gratitude I often say, ‘Thank God for Night, Silence, Still Waters, the Moon, and a Canoe!” These have been the sesame that has opened to me marvelous new worlds.”