Two Years Ago....

I was getting ready to head out on my own "adventure of a lifetime" (to quote the title of one of my favorite hiking books - Ed Garvey's original). March 5th is the actual date, but since tomorrow I will be gone most of the day, I thought I would pause and reflect on that monumental time when I forsook all to venture along some wilderness path marked by white blazes. If you ever have the chance to do something like this, do it. It's tough, make no mistake, but it is life changing and it is a time you will never forget.

I saw wonderful things, met wonderful people, experienced wonderful miracles and returned with a better appreciation of life and God. I still have plans to finish the book I have started (it's about 3/4th done) which will be the written account of this fascinating journey.

Here is an excerpt I wrote in my book for this day -

"On March 4th, I look around my home, taking it all in. I won’t be back in this place until at least May when I would have walked 900 miles to get here. Now I am abandoning my castle, my call as keeper of the abode for a new abode in the woods. It’s strange to leave a place of security for some vast unknown. I could understand a bit what missionaries felt like. All security and comfort is thrown to the wind for some unknown situation. It really is stepping off some cliff and allowing oneself to be caught up in God’s wind of grace and mercy. When I finally close and lock the front door, I say good-bye for six months and hello to a new life I know so little about. God, help me!"

And God surely did as I reflect on that six month journey.

And one of many journeys yet to come.