There’s nothing quite like a good hiking trail. The way opens up as the tree limbs and tall grass beckon me on. Especially at the breezy time of day, with the leaves dangling down and the dust kicking up, the path just seems to care for each person who takes a risk on exploration, exclaiming, “This is the way, walk in it!” (Is 30:21). You can leave the highways to the CEOs and the expressways to the professionals. The avenues with their fancy signage and the boulevards with their curated flower beds will not satisfy. My soul longs instead to go somewhere, to be in process, on a journey with a real destination, but not at the expense of the mosquitoes and ants and violets and dandelions who get me there. These creature friends are begging us to slow things down, to bypass the bypasses and stay off the interstates. They invite us to pay attention to the way as much as we do to the destination, and in so doing, enjoy the integrated life where our minds and hearts and bodies are all exactly in the same place at the same time. Let’s go hiking this week and be at peace. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
