A Walk in the Woods

It was such a beautiful day yesterday!  I haven't had the chance to get up to Green Mountain in a long time, so it was great to have some time to do that yesterday morning.  Mackenzie was home for her spring break last week, so she went back to school Sunday.  Anna managed to get a trip to the beach with her friend Kerry for her spring break this week and she left on Sunday, too.  So Jack and I are getting a preview of being 'empty nesters' this week.  So far it's ok... but I know I'll be looking forward to Anna getting home soon.  It's a little too quiet! :)  Anyways, I'm working this week, so no beach trips for me.  But I had a nice day off yesterday and I just thought I'd share some thoughts from my walk in the woods.  It seems like most any time I am able to get away to the mountain, it's a place where God speaks to me, and I was very much in need of that yesterday...  here are some thoughts and scriptures that came to mind along the way...

 

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.   -- Jeremiah 6:16

Whenever I come around this corner to the start of this well-worn path around the lake, it's kinda like that moment when you first arrive at the ocean and just exhale...  it really is a place of rest for my soul.

 

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” -- Isaiah 30:21

The picture above and the next few that follow were taken from a path that I didn't know existed until yesterday.  After crossing the covered bridge, the usual path winds off to the left, but I saw what looked to be a less used path going off to the right.  So I decided to give it a try.  I didn't really expect it to go anywhere, but it turns out that it runs right along the water for quite a ways until it meets back up with the 'real' trail.  I was tempted to turn back to my old familiar path - I hadn't planned on charting any new courses, but then I realized that this is probably a good metaphor for my life.  I get very comfortable and often look for 'rest' in the well-worn paths of my heart and mind and life...  but there are times that call for those paths to be challenged and rerouted.  It isn't an easy thing to follow the new paths - but sometimes that is where God is calling you to.

 Mandy enjoyed the new path! :)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 

-- 2 Corinthians 5:17

This may be a little hard to see, but there was all this 'new life' everywhere I went, and then I passed this branch with the old, dead leaves still hanging on, waiting to be discarded.  It just made me think of the verse above.  And again, the metaphor -- I don't always feel the 'new life' I've been given, but it is real and it is new every morning in Christ.  I hope it can be as new and vibrant and real as these brand new green leaves. 

Speaking of new - have you seen my dog lately?  If you knew her 'before' (and I need to find a picture!) you know she's been a bit overwieght.  But look at her now!  4 months of being on medication for a thyroid condition (isn't it funny how your pets take on your diseases?)  and she has lost 30 pounds!  No kidding...  she was 74 pounds last fall and just weighed in at the vet at 44 last Friday! She's half the dog she used to be! ha! But she's feeling so much better.   Hmmm... maybe I need to up my thyroid dosage a bit and lose a few nagging pounds of my own!  ;-)

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  --  Isaiah 43:19

It's funny, the verse earlier, from Jeremiah, asks us to look for the ancient path and walk in it.  This one from Isaiah asks us to look at the new way that the Lord is making.  A contradiction?   Not really.  The ancient path keeps us grounded and gives us our bearings, while the new ways are a necessary part of growth and change.  I took the picture below from another less traveled path that ran off the main trail. Again, it took me through the woods and down by the water.  It was a pretty view.  :)  This time, though, I tried to make my own way along the water where there really wasn't much of a path at all...  I ended up having to turn back and was thankful to get back on the old familiar trail.  I do believe God will always make a way for us - it's up to us to perceive it and follow it and take care not to fall too far off the path. 

 I love the way the sunlight came out in this picture.

 I was wondering what might live in that hole. :)

I sat down for a moment here - one of my favorite places on the mountain - and the song, "You are Holy" just popped into my head.  So I sat there and sang that to God.  It felt like such a holy moment.

 OK, so wandering off the main path kind-of became an obsession for this walk - so right after my holy moment, the next path took me by the Whiskey Distillery.  I'll let you, the reader, interpret that moment any way you like.  haha....

I saw this sign at the end of my walk today and had to laugh.  It was referring to a new little garden they have up there - apparently they don't want people wandering off the trail in there! :)

 There's nothing all that 'natural' about this in the woods and it's a little weird, but I do like the idea of angels up on Green Mountain. :)

 If you can open up this picture and actually read the 'Legend of the Dogwood,' it's really cool.  I don't think I've ever heard it before.  If you can't read it here, maybe you can google it.  ;-)

Stalker Cat!  No kidding, it made a beeline for Mandy when we first arrived and was there at the end waiting for us.  Weird cat.

 I like this sign. :)

The Flying Nun. 

(Those of you who are old like me will understand that.)

And this has nothing to do with Green Mountain.  But when I got home, my Kwanzan Cherry Trees in the front yard looked SO pretty that I just had to take a picture! :)