What was that wild emotion
as I stood grinning,
gazing up into the bare trees
and balancing on two legs and a walking stick
so as not to topple over?
What was that exhilarating sense of freedom
as I gazed at their dance,
me tethered to the ground,
them swaying far above,
blown back and forth by
every gust of wind?
When I prayed
(something I had never asked before),
in Your kindness
You blew a breeze
that gently lifted every twig,
a whisper that rippled through the woodland
and then was gone.
What was that glad response
emanating from my deepest self?
That continues on in the memory
of the moment?
Wonder,
Awe,
Joy,
Gratitude.
Moving and moving on is a tumultuous endeavor.The physical work of relocating belongings is over but the soul work of transferring affections and identity and sense of belonging is ongoing.
Rather than filling this space with words I'll offer pictures of the beauty I am finding when I look for it. These scenes are a couple of miles up the road from where we live and make for lovely walking.
The woods here have a different make-up from the ones I rambled on Maryland's Coastal Plain. In this Pennsylvania Ridge and Valley region the hillsides are carpeted with low-growing blueberries and the understory is a mosaic of mountain laurel and witch hazel and, in places, acres of young pines.
Moss is plentiful in open glades, a surprising woodland chartreuse that I am rather sure I would not choose in an indoor setting,
and sometimes disguises the remnants of another time.
I will surely have further reflections as I settle in and accept the invitations this new land offers. I wonder at what unknown adventures await, beckoning me towards what I cannot now see, towards the One who brought me here and even towards a deeper knowing myself. Gratefully, I wonder.
