Be Still and Know . . .

They are experiences that leave me feeling alive with gratitude,

Experiences that I cannot recreate but can remember so vividly.

Experiences that leave me wanting more.

Experiences that feel like a great pressure building up inside me – a great wonderful pressure building so great that I feel like I will explode.

Experiences that I am incapable of describing but can only allude to.

The deep, deep blue sky and the leaves so red and yellow and gold and numberless other colors.

The rain falling so gently into the stream making a thousand dimples in the water.

The sound of the breeze as it moves mysteriously through the tops of the trees with a sound so soothing.

The rolling, rumbling, loud, explosive, gentle sound of thunder in the mountains announcing the coming storm.

The crunch of the snow below the moon that creates a world that ins hidden during the bright sunny hours.

The silence of a slick rock wilderness void of the sound of vehicles and people and airplanes.

All of my overwhelming, memorable experiences come from solitude in nature.

“Be still and know that I am God!”

I’ve never experienced anything like this in a church building. Cities and monuments and man-made things leave me empty and somewhat irritated – as if something pure and of infinite value has been corrupted.

The closest similar experiences in a man-made environment have been experienced when entering a science building on a university campus or walking through the doors of a library -- but even these cannot compare with solitude in nature.

Today ended as all days should. A rain shower with thunder and lightning passed through late today and the sun came out and a vast golden sunset crept into the western sky. We took a walk and the fall colors were freshly washed. As I write this a breeze is blowing through the window. Far off lightning and thunder give promise of another rain. The are no sounds of automobiles, no sirens, no radio or television to mar the experience.

All is right with my world.

I wonder – and can’t understand – how people survive in cities without stars and coyotes and solitude.