What John Muir Beheld
Mysterious Ways|December/January 2018

On my shelf at home, I keep a treasured photo album of my great-grandfather’s trip to Yosemite in 1901.

Rick Hamlin
What John Muir Beheld

He was suffering from some undiagnosed ailment when he took his family in their horse-drawn carriage on a rustic tour that culminated in a visit to the recently established national park. Perhaps it will seem ironic if I tell you that my great-grandfather, a former Civil War drummer boy and a mayor of Pasadena, California, had made his living as a lumberman. Still, even he knew that healing could be found amidst the giant sequoias.

Those trees might not have been there had it not been for the rapturous writings of the great American naturalist John Muir. But, then again, my great-grandfather probably wouldn’t have been there either had he not heard about this magical place and seen it through Muir’s eyes. “To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one,” the English writer John Ruskin said. And that’s what Muir did. He saw like that. 

It wasn’t always that way. Muir hadn’t started out as a conservationist. In fact, it wasn’t until an accident left Muir blind in his twenties that he devoted his life to the study of nature. Had it never happened, he would not have become the John Muir we know today.

Muir was born in Scotland in 1838. When he was 11 years old, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in rural Wisconsin, where their backbreaking labor cleared a farm in the native forest. Muir liked to take refuge in the surrounding woods, learning the names of every bird, bush, fern and flower. He also had a knack for inventing things, like a giant thermometer that won a prize at the state fair. Or an alarm clock bed that would lift a sleeper and dump him on the floor, presumably standing. In one of its later iterations, it even included a dish of cold water for an early-morning dousing.

Denne historien er fra December/January 2018-utgaven av Mysterious Ways.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra December/January 2018-utgaven av Mysterious Ways.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA MYSTERIOUS WAYSSe alt
Ivy Dishes
Mysterious Ways

Ivy Dishes

“My mom found a house for us to look at,” said my fiancé, Jon. “It’s in Richfield, not far from where I grew up.”

time-read
4 mins  |
February/March 2021
The Duet
Mysterious Ways

The Duet

“Can you perform a hymn for us next week?” my pastor asked me after Sunday service.

time-read
2 mins  |
February/March 2021
The Girl in the Dream
Mysterious Ways

The Girl in the Dream

Was this a church? The high, vaulted ceilings made it seem like one—almost but not exactly.

time-read
5 mins  |
February/March 2021
News From Around Our Wonderful World
Mysterious Ways

News From Around Our Wonderful World

Liverpool, England Joanne Carr is hailing her son, Dougie McInerney, as her guardian angel.

time-read
2 mins  |
February/March 2021
A Light in the Blizzard
Mysterious Ways

A Light in the Blizzard

I stepped on the gas and shifted into drive, then reverse, then back into drive again.

time-read
4 mins  |
February/March 2021
Straight From the Fish's Mouth
Mysterious Ways

Straight From the Fish's Mouth

Florence, Italy. I’d been there before on one of those scruffy five-dollar-a-day youth-hostel jaunts through Europe, but now, just graduated from college, I was wondering what to do with my life.

time-read
5 mins  |
February/March 2021
Divine Callings
Mysterious Ways

Divine Callings

Have you ever felt called to a purpose?

time-read
8 mins  |
February/March 2021
Dad's Voice
Mysterious Ways

Dad's Voice

As I reached to turn off the lamp on my bedside table, my eyes fell on the card my brother Isaac had given each of us siblings on what would have been Dad’s sixty-eighth birthday.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021
Ben's Answer
Mysterious Ways

Ben's Answer

It was midafternoon, and I was already curled up on the couch in the living room with no plans to move.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021
A Doll's Hat
Mysterious Ways

A Doll's Hat

My fears around the surgery built all day.... God, please let me be as strong as my young patients are.

time-read
3 mins  |
February/March 2021