So far, 2020 has been a difficult road to travel for us all. I’m deeply thankful that Karl and I have just had the ability to unplug, disengage, and step back for a while. We hooked on to the trailer, added our four-wheelers to the ‘train’, and took off for a couple of weeks. First stop: Encampment, where we met with dear friends we hadn’t seen in about twelve years. I’ll admit, I’d wondered if after so long we’d be able to renew our bond, but it didn’t take long to realize that some friendships, some connections, are timeless and enduring. Laughs, memories, and making new treasured moments became the focus. We spent nearly five days together, and as I waved when they pulled out of camp, I couldn’t help but feel grateful for Ken and Lynn, the joy of seeing them, treasuring their company, and the mutual resolve to get together again SOON. I also couldn’t help but feel as if something inside me, some part of who I am that had been lying ignored and withered in the bottom of my soul had just been carried into the light and given a healthy dose of life.
Our next stop on our ‘unplugged tour’ was a camping spot we’d visited about three years ago. Though it was windy and temperatures got a little chilly at night (28 degrees!), we explored with hikes and four-wheelers the beauty of the forest, climbed steep hills, drank icy water from a spring bubbling straight out of the ground. Again, as I studied the details of wild flowers, or watched a hawk playing in the wind, and listened to the rush of mountain creeks over rocks, I got the sense that something within me was trying for my attention. Something I’d allowed to be stifled and subdued by the ugliness and uncertainty that I had been obsessing about was aching to be freed.
One night, I crept out alone and stood under the velvet night sky. In the dark, with stars so alive and vivid I could almost reach them, I watched a falling star skim the blackness above my head. It moved slowly, leaving a path of sparkles. In the dark silence after the lights faded, I felt God’s presence. He came as a wordless reminder that while nature is infinite in scope and majesty, and the din of evil and the tyranny of the world’s urgent demands engage me, I am God’s precious creation, His loved child. Nothing. Not one thing the world can try to demand is more True or important that knowing and owning this one fact.
