Stand up, God is walking by.

I received a note from a friend yesterday.  She is this morning hiking Half Dome in Yosemite and was asking for prayers.  I awoke in the dark this morning and prayed and have several times since.  She is in it now, beginning a 12-14 hour hike.  Oh God must be so present in her life right now and throughout the day, His glories resounding down that ancient valley passing through her as it goes, dividing her as He did that mountain.  God always divides those that seek Him, His world, our inventions, His thoughts, ours, His ways our byways.  But hiking is like walking with Him undivided, Him pointing out our soul, his creation making us aware we have one, our relationship becoming real, you being gently placed aside while God walks by.  It is like that famous scene in To Kill a Mocking Bird when Scout is told to stand because her father is leaving the courtroom—hiking is like standing in awesome wonder as God walks by.  Happy standing trails April.    

My friend April is in the back, notoriously camera-shy.  Her friend is taking the photo. 

Sitting In Dawn

I sit in the dark, sweet night sounds making kind, being with me in these times, pre-day.  Even now to my four o’clock a deep chirping, as from the bottom of a crock, makes the woods a living room of sweet mystery.  A group of duck’s floats by, one white, sacred seeming and making me sigh at so much that is sacred and is a part of daily life.  I am awake and have chosen to place myself here because it is time to be with God.  That is a silent shattering of my reality and stills me to be awakened.  Fish break the grey-blue surface leaving circles, dream catchers, a dream here—a dream there and God is here but distant, present but overarching, inside but everywhere.  Yesterday my lover and I saw a rainbow, its base between a ridge and the Appalachians beyond.  It comes to my memory again as my beloved lies sleeping at my six o’clock.  It dawns on me that I am using myself as a compass pin and relegating my thoughts to Him alone.  It thunders quietly in the way off.  I sit in the dawn.  

 

Burning Bushes and Boulders

 My lover and I went hiking as is our habit, discovered two new waterfalls.  It was one of those glorious days of bright sunshine and green mountains, flowing streams and aloneness, just her and me (Hounder too).  The stream was a rare thing, plenty of them around, but most so deeply held in the mountains they're never hiked, those that are boulder-strewn making up the shoreline and the river bed forcing the water to find paths that accommodate their massive bulk.  I am very taken with boulders, my earliest acquaintance with God, like this stream, are strewn with them, and often by them, my acquaintance has been born to worshipful adoration of my Father, Savior, Lord.  Burning bushes and boulders are great places to be saved.  

   

Dream Catcher

One of the most serene events in life is feeling the warmth of your lover in the middle of the night.  Your arm cold is laid beside her warm and she flows herself into you, willingly enveloping you.  Just to know that you are not alone, there is someone love ties to you, someone who will awaken if summoned will come forth from slumber to be with you.  But there is an even greater joy, it is the unconscious grasp of love; the moment when you, barely awake, become aware that you have laced your hand in hers and she, not awake, has gently squeezed it, a dream of love that is—no dream.  

Notes To The Father Written On Stone Tablets

I just received an email and images from two students who had gone hiking and made a work of art on their travels.  I was filled with joy!  Why?   They are learning of all the joy God will give the heart which longs to know, love, praise, and worship Him by our acts of making art.  There is great Christian contentment in the creative act when we are surrounded by His creation.  It is a way of being satisfied while living with a soul that longs to be filled.  That is what art-making is, it is being contented while longing to be overjoyed, it is like making good work in the Studio the Master left behind, surrounded by His Glory we make things for Him, imitating Him.  All the while waiting to be welcomed into His Studio Workshop, He is making for us, when we will make like Him.  Michaela and Mia, you moved the heart of an old soul.  Thank you.   

  

Summer Love For What It Announces

Summer is waning, its hot grip and restless nature are beginning its last act.  It is cool this morning reminding all heaven and earth that harvest is coming, crops are ripening, trees and flowers and honey bees have had a good run.  Most all the fawns and chicks are now weaned and God is checking His storehouses of snow.  I love all seasons but summer the most but not for what you might think.  I love summer because it is like the days before Christmas, it is a time of longing in sincere appreciation for and that—fall, winter, and spring are coming. 

You Have To Break The Morning

“Morning has broken, like the first morning…”.  I am convinced that humans are meant to live in the wild.  By this, I do not mean Jurassic Park but the earth as it naturally is.  When God commanded us to “subdue” or “govern” the earth He did not mean enslave or banish.  Most westerners have little or no contact with the earth and today our children are so isolated from it they have lost one of the great treasures of life, adventure.  When we regularly place ourselves in the earth it challenges us in ways nothing else does, it requires strength, ingenuity, restraint, patients, courage, wisdom, and above all else physical labor.  It allows you to continually know by experience that you are capable, you’re up to it, you’ve got it.  But above all else it teaches you humble, grateful, admiration for God who thought it all up and then was kind enough to create and share it.