Psalm 8

This morning I was reading Psalm 8 and it just reminded me of what I wrote the other day and how I often feel when I get the chance to get outdoors and walk among creation.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

The psalmist after considering the beauty of the world around him and of man himself has only one possible response to praise God for his amazing gift.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

This is why I love to hike or walk outside. To be reminded of this and to join the psalmist in his adoration.

Carolina

Spoke too soon about not having jet lag. I slept in too late this morning thinking it wouldn't hurt but I'm now suffering the consequences of hubris. I'm now hoping that the combination of blog writing, a night cap and James Taylor will get me to sleep before 2 am.

James just went out to Carolina in his mind and I think I'll join him for a while. At the moment I'm in the foothills sometime in the mid fall. The leaves have started to change and the hills have turned from rolling emeralds to the wild reds, yellows and oranges of a cheerful campfire. The color bedazzles the eye and the soul drinks in the moment of beauty and friendship and warmth. This is a place where every vista is worth hours of hiking for and where friendships are cemented in sweat and adventure and real conversations. Here you find hidden places and wondered if they've ever been burdened by the cares of a transient like myself. Here you long for eternity because finite time is too fickle and compels you to leave before your soul has had it's fill of color. Here you look out at the horizon and wonder aloud the deep questions of the heart some of which are answered and others that drift on into the distance never to be fully understand till we pass these terrestrial bounds.

As suddenly as Carolina comes she goes leaving behind just a faint promise of a distant future and a lingering hope of beauty and life. Now concerns of sleep and tomorrows both close at hand and those far away will call me back but I know that Carolina is out there and one day I'll find her.

Thanks James.

Back?

It's midnight on the night before I head back to the Czech Republic for my 6th year and though I'm tired both physically and emotionally I'm not ready for bed. So instead I go about wasting time in the usual fashion: TV, facebook and reading the news. When I'm this tired I know that I should go to bed but some part of me feels compelled to stay up. At the moment I'm wondering if that part of me is afraid of wasting my life or afraid of living it. In theory I don't want to miss out on life but I know that I often turn from those things that would bring growth to my soul and mind and instead settle for the warm comforts of stagnation.

This preamble is to say that I once again going to try and blog. I think that I like to write but often I don't do it and instead find a million other ways to waste my time. One problem I have with writing blogs can be summed up in the following quote from Pliny the Elder:

"True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; in writing what deserves to be read; and in so living as to make the world happier and better for our living in it."

To make both our lives and our words have meaning is a momentous and sacred charge and although I agree with it in principal the casual blog writer may at times find this sentiment more oppressive than inspirational. I will try my best to both live and write according to Pliny's mantra but I will instead take for myself the less illustrious muse the old adage "that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly". I feel that the process of writing is worth something even if my themes or style lack something to be desired.

So onward and upward. I hope this is the beginning of a new blogging season and the beginning of stealing back a little bit more life from the vast pool of wasted time.