"We come to give thanks: for earth and sea and sky in harmony of color, the air of the eternal seeping through the physical, the everlasting glory dipping into time, we praise Thee." George F. MacLeod
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.
