so much more: En Route (Awake my Soul)

We are back from a lovely trip through the mountains. We drove a long loop, taking the TransCanada through Banff and then south to Cranbrook, swooping Northward again toward the Balfour Ferry, where we forded the Kootenay Lake. We arrived at Jason and Tracy's breathless. What a paradise!

On the way back, we toured the Crowsnest Pass, wound our way through the windy territory of Southern Alberta and then up Northward again to the Parkland area of Central Alberta, on the East short of Gull Lake. Such diverse landscapes! All of it: gorgeous.

The boys were delighted to see so much wildlife.... bears, big-horned sheep, dear, and marmots. We took time to slow down and watched them as we could from the van, being quiet and careful not to disturb the animals. How we talked about them for mile after mile, the way the black bear swayed and nibbled grass and the heavy, exaggerated curl of the bighorn sheep's horns. We admired the way the small roadside meadows were blanketed with the bright purple fireweed, fully in bloom. Stunning.

And when we weren't talking, we sang along to Chris Tomlin's song

"Awake my Soul." None of us objected to repeating it several times...

Breathe on me, breath of God...

I come alive, I'm alive when you breathe on me....

Awake, awake, awake my soul!

God, resurrect these bones!

From death to life

For you alone awake my soul.

We worshiped and rejoiced and when it came time for me to lead the women in retreat all the way in Grand Forks,

my heart was filled with praise. So good to be together in search of the Living God, ready and available for the Spirit's breath to revive and restore.

I checked back to my notes and noticed from the beginning of our sabbatical this line, underlined:

I am so tired.

I was so tired and though I don't remember writing it, I remember the lure of horizontal surfaces (benches, counter-tops, hardwood floors, etc) -

all beckoning me to lie down, rest and disappear into a brief world of sleep.

Another gift of sabbatical is this:

We have rested. I've logged some 10-hour nights and occasional day-times naps in the sun.

Is there anything sweeter and more rejuvenating than a little bit of shut-eye outside in the sun?

But now I've been spending less time thinking about how I'd love to just lie down

on any old surface and sleep.

Now I dream about how great it would be to tie up my shoes and go for a run. So I do.

This morning I ran once around the block, which in the country side here is a perfect 4.25 mile run. I kicked up my heels and turned up the tunes. Hooray for running! A mile and bit into the run, I watched a white-tail deer before it startled. How peacefully it grazed on the lush grass in the ditch. And when it saw me, what a bounding leap it made! It dashed along the caragana hedges and waved its bright white tail. I was close enough to see the deer's small black hooves lifting high above the top of the grass. Such precise, pointed little feet!

And as sudden as that flash of white, I remembered the line "Hind's feet in high places." Though I've never heard anyone call a deer a "hind" somehow the line came back to me,

as I recall being a little girl looking at the title of that novel on my parent's bookshelf.

The deer's effortless gallop made me feel all at once clumsy and heavy-footed. What a thought that the Psalmist has when he suggests that God makes his feet like the feet of a deer! (Psalm 18:33)

I glanced down for a second and see my large white Saucony's.

Feet of a deer? Hardly.

But I let myself chuckle and picked up the pace a bit. I come alive again.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.

For the director of music. On my stringed instruments. (Habb 3:19)

I reach and push play on my iPhone again. For the director of music.