The Shaman of Life

Garner State Park, Texas

Everything pulled away, the clouds, the trees, the vegetation all seemed to draw back into themselves, paring down to their essentials, not stunted but powerful acts of preservation toward living.  These were my thoughts as we drove west out of the clogged and smogged commerce of Austin and San Antonio into the plains and opening up of the hill county of west Texas.  The sky cleared into iron blue, and the vastness cleansed the land and brought out its hardscrabble nature.  We are camped beside a wide emerald stream, the Frio River, an oasis of life.  Water is like a savior, a shaman of life, allowing ancient trees, gnarled masses of hope and beauty.  It is apropos to The Holy Scripture’s high regard for water, even to the naming of the Divine as Living Water.  So here we are, sitting in the morning dark, listening to King Cole, drinking good coffee in an exquisite cup I carry with me, and thinking of my Good God.  I have read the ancient prophet Ezekiel, and God’s declaration in the desert of sin that He will establish His new covenant with me, to save me, and this piece of west Texas declares the Truth of His Word…Living Water’s Living Blood brings me to life everlasting.   From west Texas; happy trials. 

The Frio River beside our campsite.

Betty with the massive Texas Live Oaks
that line the river.