I grew up in south Taranaki with the mountain staring at me as I stood at our backdoor. My memory has me seeing myself positioned right in the middle of this beauty pondering Phantom’s Peak, the mountain in miniature, displaying equal majesty, halfway from the top. A liberal smattering of snow seemed always to decorate what nature had provided for our eyes a long time ago. In my naivety as a child I didn’t think this mountain was anything special and thought all mountains were like that! One day, while driving home after a lengthy absence Mt Taranaki came into view in all her glory. I think then I uttered for the first time: “Beautiful!” For me these days, Mt Taranaki is a real mountain, the others are just hills with snow on them! It is a sacred icon on the landscape. I happily bow before it. 

What is it about human beings that when looking at our own lives we fail to see beauty right before our eyes?

• We seek to be someone when we already are
• we strive to be rich when we already are
• we crave power when we already have it
• we choose slavery when we can be free
• we thirst for meaning but drink from dry wells
• we seek lasting intimacy from the finite when the infinite is within
• we expect to love and be loved but walk from the difficult stages