I leaned into the trees' massive body and willed myself invisible. Fading into the variegated bark, I felt its arms embrace me as the wind cupped my face with the cold of a wooded winters breath. The brittle twigs and parched leaves under my feet seemed to welcome me as kin instead of the intruder I was.
Motionless, I took in the macrocosm before me.
I heard the faint call of a barn owl in the distance, its diurnal opus possibly triggered by the gloominess of a dreary day. A brief glimpse of a whitetail deer disappeared over a near hill. A woodpecker's hollow rhythm echoed in a glen. Winter wheat, on a far away hill, bowed in undulating obeisance to the soft thermals.
Eventually, silence as only a forest can fashion, settled as an eery hush over the land and I sank deeper into the woodland soul, assuming my niche.
This is my setting for two.
My seat with the sacred.
My bench of blessing.
My seat with the sacred.
My bench of blessing.
Then, I did what I came to do; to be still, experience The Lord and pray.
"May all those that come after me, that walk this land as I have, hear a thousand tongues of truth among the trees and words of wisdom in the whispers of the wind. May they sense your presence as they walk the fields, hear songs of praise from the beaks of birds and behold your majesty in the deep starry sky of night. May the fullness of this land beckon and waken the eternity within them and may they know that you and you alone, are God. May they find this place a sanctuary of peace and prayer." Amen
The land you have taken possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
Deuteronomy 11:11-12
He has set eternity in the hearts of men.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
