To get to where we live now, you drive to a church camp – and keeping on going. The road dead-ends into our yard. We have 25 acres of mostly wooded land. (I use the terms “our” and “we” loosely as we’re really freeloading off of my in-laws while we raise our support.)
The one neighbor between us and the camp has about the same. And who know how much land the camp has. That’s where I went running yesterday. I ran up the road, cut through the neighbors yard and across the metal and wood bridge covering the creek (my in-laws call it a crick) below and I was off into the woods.
I had my son’s iPod with me because the battery on mine was dead, but I turned it off once I noticed the crunching of the leaves under my feet. I love that sound. And I wonder how much of life and God’s creation I miss because my head is buried in a computer or a TV or even in an iPod in the middle of the woods. It’s a good thing not to allow kids to bring stuff like this on retreats for just that reason.
I hadn’t gone far when I ran around a bend in the path and a deer followed by two fawns, ran right in front of me. I stopped running and just walked, taking it all in. After a while I came to a clearing and saw four more white-tail deer. As they ran off their tails where strait up in back and glistened beautifully in the sun. I saw one more deer a little later.
Something I’ve started to focus on in my life and to try to teach my kids, since we’ve been in the midst of big moves and a lot of traveling, is to look for the good in where ever we’re at, whatever the situation. For example, we sold a much nicer house than we’re living in now, but it sat on a four lane highway. In six years of living there, I never saw wild turkeys and deer in my yard. Yesterday I saw eight.