Sharing Life

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Greetings all! Happy New Year.

I enjoy the out doors. My wife Alessandra and I recently purchased a new home in Culpeper County, Virginia upon my retirement from the ministry in the United Methodist Church. We have 4 acres (mostly wooded) of property. We look forward to exploring. When we purchased the property it reminded me of a walk I took at a retreat at Bon Secour in Maryland.

There was a path – wide at this end and then dropped easily down a slope and became narrower at the bottom. There was a small glade with log benches formed in a circle. I sat in silent wonder and awe for some time. As I moved along the path I stopped, my way blocked by a leaf that was hanging right in front of me. It was hanging from a near invisible thread – six or more feet long clinging to two trees on the path. Just hanging there, slowly swaying with the natural rhythm of the woods.

Was I going to be a predator, the disrupter of this natural phenomenon? Or would I find a way to proceed on my walk under, over or around? Certainly not over as the shining thread of the spider web was at eye level. I chose to go around – off the path. There I was able to see more of the web and the spider that had created it! The sun highlighted more of the structure of the web – intricate, shimmering with the sun’s rays.

I again found myself on the path. I looked back at the hanging leaf, slightly moving leaf – hanging as if in mid-air. Dancing, speaking to me in leaf language. I greeted the leaf once more and the maker of the threaded web and moved forward to witness other mysteries.