I do not believe in burning bushes. Well, that’s not entirely true. More accurately, I do not typically experience God in burning bushes. God does not tend to show up in the visible and tell me what to do. Rather, I believe that God goes with me where I go, walks along side me into the decisions I make, and lives them out as I live them out. Does God act in quite obvious ways for some people? Sure. I believe that that’s true, and I could even say that I’ve had experiences like that a few times in my life. But for me, God is more often found in the mundane, the simple. God is in the trees, in the conversations, in my friends, in our laughter and in our tears. God sits by fires rather than in them.

I don’t go into the woods to find God or to find myself. Both are with me wherever I go. I go into the woods to be with beautiful friends, to sleep outside, under the stars. I go for the words shared, the hikes, the rivers and lakes as crisp as January, the smell of firewood. There are few places in the world where I feel as calm and as whole as I do when I am sitting next to a fire under a canopy of pine. And to feel whole…yes, please yes.

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness,
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

Mary Oliver

Stef took that one.

After a wonderful night, we head out on the trail.

Stella & Scoot Scoot McGoot

Melakwa Lake was our destination and it did not disappoint. It’s a 7.8 mile hike (a 2000+ ft. elevation gain) from the Denny Creek trailhead near exit 46 on the 90.

And then it was time.

ineffably cold

Stef took those two.

snow in July

Three things that are always highlights of any camping trip: eating food by the fire, where it always tastes better, talking about the food that you’ll eat when you get home, and stopping on the highway to eat terrible wonderful food.