Go Gently, Know Beauty

Creekside, on the way up the trail to the High Divide in Washington’s Olympic National Park, are the tiny yellow Arnica, and in addition to their happy ‘sunflower look’ they have a long history of use by Native Americans given the flower’s medicinal healing properties to treat inflammation.

Higher up, above the mystical and magical Heart Lake, its heart shape perched on the very edge of the Sol Duc Valley, are alpine fields of lupine bouquets.

Higher still, and with delicate artistry, from the divine painter’s palette, fine, careful brushstrokes have created on visual canvas the magnetic attractiveness of the magenta Indian Paintbrush.

And on the horizon, now with a broad, bold sweeping brush, is the magnificent, mesmerizing majesty of Mount Olympus and the mighty Olympic mountain range.

It is no wonder the Apache Blessing reads, “May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.”