From today...

Most of today will remain out of the spotlight of the blog, shared perhaps with a few dear friends, or simply held close to my heart.

It was a much needed day. Hard, full, rich, beautiful.

But here are a few thoughts I'm thinking at the end of the day, ranging from the very mundane, to the less mundane:

• I've lived my whole life near the mountains. I've given others advice on how to dress and/or prepare for the mountain conditions. I've been hiking since I was a very small child. I have very fair skin, and quite recently reminded someone else that when they were climbing a mountain, they needed to take greater care to wear sunscreen, as you burn more quickly at altitude. Did I remember my own advice today? Well, yes and no. I did apply sunscreen, but apparently I did a rather haphazard job of it, and apparently didn't use a high enough SPF (another absolute rookies mistake I should know better than to have made.) The result is that I have badly sunburnt shoulders, semi-badly burnt arms, a badly burnt hand, and a semi badly burnt neck and upper chest (joys of a scoop neck tank top).
• The fortune from the fortune cookie that came with the Vietnamese take-out I picked up for dinner tonight read: You will step on the soil of many countries in your lifetime. I don't put any stock in those fortunes, but it did make me smile, as a sort of little way of confirming some things I talked with Jesus about today.
• I shouldn't be surprised that in many ways attending church tonight was a continuation of the conversation I'd been having with Jesus all day. I should have expected that I felt prompted to make it back to the city in time for me to shower (after hiking, I was, to use my kiwi roommate's phrase "grubby") and head for church. But I didn't expect it, and was caught off guard as the service went on.
• I'm thinking about a line from the Message translation of Psalm 84: "How blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel."

And with that, I think I'll say goodnight and head off to sit with my journal for a time.

Not Quite as Planned (Pilgrimaging)

What I'm doing today is not what I'd planned for much of the last year to be doing today.

I was supposed to join a friend for the final leg of her pilgrimage journey, to join her in support and to pray for and with her. Due to a number of factors, practical and deeply personal, it's not going to be possible for me to join her.

Instead, I've chosen to make something of an annual "pilgrimage" of my own. I'm heading to a special spot on top of a mountain. A sort of hidden meadow. The plan is to hike up, and then simply sit for a while. There are, I think, tears that need to be shed (if they will only fall...). There is most definitely the need to pray. And there is a desperate longing and hope that in this place, which Jesus seems to call me to on an annual basis, I will be able to meet Jesus. That he will draw near, and if not speak, simply hold me, and my broken and exhausted heart.

And I'll be joining with my friend in spirit, praying for her as she makes the final leg of her journey, arrives at her destination, and also seeks to meet with Jesus and hear his heart for her. I'm grateful, at least, that God transcends time and distance, and that, at least in prayer, I can draw near to her today, when I can't join her physically.

Funny Headline

Fierce Raptor Halts Mail Delivery in Moose Jaw

This one cracked me up, and made me smile just a bit wistfully, remembering an odd, deep moment with a hawk in a cemetery last summer...