Thin Place, Part II

"If you don't become the ocean, then you will be seasick every day."

(Leonard Cohen)

The earth carries us on our journeys. Sometimes I feel so frustrated as I drive along in my little "box". And there are all these people in their own little" boxes"; all of us ignoring each other. And the earth just continues to carry each one of us, patient for that moment when we will stop and see the ocean of earth beneath our feet. When I lived in New Mexico I came to appreciate and love Native American spirituality. Rooted in the earth, it respects this gift of God and expects God to speak through it.

Fraser Firs

 Today has been a day for listening to God's voice in nature. Bella and I set out this morning on a walk through the Christmas tree farm adjacent to Mepkin. The roads zigzag through the trees climbing higher and higher. I don't do downhill so easily with my bum knee, but uphill is great! Of course what goes up must come down… Thankfully Mepkin has lots of walking sticks for help.  Snow and ice are still hiding in the north turned shadows. The roads are carved deeply with ruts from melting snow and rain. I managed to avoid most of the really muddy spots, but Bella adorned her body with the cool pleasures of a mud treatment for her paws. The branches of the Fraser Fir trees were warm with the morning sun. There is a softness in these short needled evergreens; perhaps that's why they are so popular for Christmas trees. I stood at the end of one row of trees and closed my eyes for a moment imagining what it is like to stand in the same place for years bending with the wind; being fed by the sun and watered by the rain.  Trees and their shadows for as far as I could see and then my very different shadow cast upon the same ground as theirs. Daily these trees give themselves over to things that seem cruel and hopeless and yet it awakens in them a softness and beauty that enhances our joy. I wonder what is waiting in me, in us, to be awakened by our struggles with life?

Bella, ready for more snow?