The grandeur of so many projects and pageants may leave us with the impression that bigger is better. The spectacular certainly has taken the place of the simple and the growing need for bigger and better perhaps leaves us a bit exhausted. Lake cottages were once places where you looked at the lake or swam in the lake, not a different place to watch TV monitors or play video games. Today’s first reading notes the careful discernment of the prophet Elijah who recognized the presence of God not in the power of earthquakes and winds, but in a small breeze. The quiet of nature in its simplicity always had an appeal for poets who saw in true simplicity a deepness and worth that was more accessible than magnificence. Greatness plays its part but should never be prioritized against the calm beauty of a summer day.