Look to the Skies

Blessings on your house, and all the people in it.

Blessings on your houseMay there be peace within it, and good cheer. May these modest pages add a note of color to your house and bring you a friendly greeting from others far away.

May there be joy in your house, and love and contentment. May the lights in your window be gay lights, bright and merry lights, full of warmth and happiness, and may they proclaim to all the world that those who live in your house are humble and thankful before God and serene in their own little worlds.

May there be a friendly fire in your house and good things cooking in the kitchen. May the table you set be a full table and those around it near and dear to you.

May there be laughter in your house, the laughter that comes from a full heart, kindly laughter that cheers the lonely passerby who passes through your street; so that he feels better, warmed by the laughter from your house. May your house be a house whose well-being brings a feeling of well-being to your neighbor's house, and makes the whole neighborhood better because your house is there.

Blessings on your house and all the people in it... R. C.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS is published monthly by the Arizona Highway Department, Phoenix, Arizona. Price: $3.00 per year, U.S.A. and possessions; $3.50 elsewhere; 35 cents per single copy. Entered as second-class matter Nov. 5, 1941, at the post office at Phoenix, Arizona, under the Act of Mar. 3, 1879. Copyrighted, 1948, by the Arizona Highway Department.

Look to the skies for beauty, for rest, for inspiration and quiet reverie. Look to the skies for those precious moments in your life when your mind and heart soar to higher and finer things, and you lift your eyes from the mundane. All the world is a cathedral and the sky the sacred dome of Heaven that covers it. Look to the skies, then, for guidance, for comfort, for understanding. Here is nourishment for the soul, pinched by the confinements and the harassments of every-day living. This is the way God made the world and the sky is always with us. It is our fault that we look down and follow little footsteps in the dust. And if all we get is dust in our eyes only we are to blame. Behold the skies! Course of the sun and pathway of the moon and clouds! Behold the skies! Let sky patterns engrave their beauty on your soul. Fill your eyes with stardust. Escape from your little plot on earth and go beyond the horizon. Let the road you travel be lighted with moonlight and let the stars show you the way. Say "Howdy!" to a cloud, a loafer like you. All these things you can do if you look occasionally to the skies that are with you always and if you search out a few of their secrets. All these things you can do and you never have to move a foot.

"HOUSE ROCK VALLEY" Herb McLaughlin

Deep in the land where the buffalo roam.

Since the Stone Age, man has stuck to his little puddles and his lasts, blinking in wonderment at the sky from which all things come to him. The sky can be a cruel, white, searing thing, if you are a farmer or rancher and the drought is abroad in the land and the grass is withered and dry. To the sailor on his little ship at sea the sky can be a frightful thing, full of storm and fury. It can have, and does have its ominous moments, as if Heaven were raging at the earth. Civilizations have perished because of an unfeeling sky and races of men have been victims of its moods. But more gentle skies have given words to the poet's pen and have brought music to the violin and they have been the background for dreams. They have been the good companions of the lonely cowpuncher on the range. The sheepherder, far from human haunt, finds in the skies surcease from loneliness. Just watching a solitary cloud changing shape with the passing moment can be an exciting pastime. The sky of sunset can be an adventure, and the study of it as it changes its colors can be replete with high drama and a breathless climax. A bright morning sky sets the pace for a day's activities; so if the sky you wake up to is a favorable sky, your day will be a good day. Never take the sky for granted. It changes day by day, hour by hour, and every change holds a moment of significance for you. Learn to know the sky. In the Verde Valley of Arizona.

"SUMMER STORM" Hubert A. Lowman "BIG SKY" Matt Culley "YUCCA" Esther Henderson

Look to the skies if you are perplexed, and seek an answer to your queries. There is a comfort-ing beauty in the skies, these western skies of ours, so full of color and variety. Follow not the footprints in the dust, but lift your eyes skyward and drink deeply of the loveliness you find there. They are big enough to encompass all your sorrows and heartaches. Let the moon be your confidant, let the stars share your secrets. Yours will be a bigger world and a finer world if you look to the skies. They know no boundary. And they are such good and friendly companions . . . R. C.