My mother has told me that as a baby, I loved to lay outside and watch the trees sway and the leaves rustle in the breeze.  I am not ashamed to say that I could spend hours (if I had hours) outside watching leaves flip and turn in the wind.  I will also say that on the majority of my walks I take, I stop when a good breeze comes through so I can listen to the leaves.   While living in Italy, we didn't have the luxury of a lot of trees in our neighborhood, but I'll admit the palm trees and pine trees we did have did a decent job at meeting this underlying need of mine.  Ask a few friends what I was most excited to see, aside from family, when we got back to the States, they'll say trees.

After spending most of June and July tying up loose ends and unpacking boxes upon boxes as a result of our move from Italy to Pennsylvania, I needed to commune with God's creation.  I needed to be immersed in a forest...I just needed to get out to my trees. We attempted for a couple of weekends, but found we needed to hunker down and get some household chores done.  So, with Sean traveling to Ohio to get our cars titled and plated over my birthday weekend...bummer...and being new to the area with pretty much no friends yet, I knew just one thing I wanted to do that I could drag the kids along with me.  Through divine intervention though, the Spirit pressed on me a plan to give the kids a break from each other.  Adin could go with Sean and Emma could stay with me!  Praise the Lord!  A break from refereeing squabble after squabble about the unfairness of anything and everything.  I will neither confirm nor deny that I have said quite loudly that my constant refereeing of their petty arguments "IS GOING TO SEND ME STRAIGHT TO THE LOONY BIN!!"

I told Emma that I wanted to go on a hike for my birthday.  There was groaning, but she reluctantly agreed that I was the birthday girl and it was my choice what we did.  I assured her it was going to be a short one to just check out the trails and wander around a little.  So we set out on Friday morning for Boiling Springs and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.  I will say one thing about these central Pennsylvania natives, they are a kind and welcoming bunch.  From the butchers and deli counter clerks to the rangers at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, each one is interested in talking with you and helping you with whatever you need.  We arrive, find our maps with the help of a ranger, and set out on the north trail because they advised it would be full shade and with 95 degrees, I think that's what we want.  

There are many things I love about being in the woods, the previously mentioned stopping mid-hike to listen to the wind rustle in the leaves (which I did), feeling small in their grandness, meeting other hikers along the way.  I am generally not someone to start up a conversation with strangers, but it's been something that has been occurring so much since we've moved here.  On this hike, Emma and I met a wonderful woman, Marcia.  We met her as she was tromping through the thick brush on the side of the trail.  She emerged in her coveralls (which she later stated she had jeans on underneath because the thorns are so big), long sleeve shirt and a bucket full of fat blackberries.  We talked about the different berries found on the trail, wine berries and black raspberries in addition to the blackberries.  She walked with us for quite a bit so she could point out the wine berries.  I asked her what her plans were with the berries and she said they make country wine.  They have grapes, but it's generally just country wine they make.  We talked more and come to find out, her husband flew helicopters for the Navy and she visited Naples in 1984 when he pulled into port during a deployment.  We talked about where she visited and how the traffic scared the daylights out of her!  It was a beautiful interlude during our hike and a gift from God to chat about Naples.  We said our goodbyes to Marcia and finished up.  

Famished when we got back, we found some lunch at Cafe 101 after wandering around the pond laughing at the geese with their rear ends in the air searching for food beneath the surface of the water and checking out the south side of the trail that runs along the creek.  We both agreed it was a beautiful day spend together, and it was just what this frazzled brain needed.   Later in the weekend I was reading an article in my InTouch magazine titled, "And the Trees Will Clap Their Hands."  The author sites Isaiah 55:12 in the article:

"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,

and the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

She also goes on to site Romans 1:20, "For His invisible attributes...have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made..."  My study Bible note makes is so much clearer, "The natural world bears witness to God through its beauty, complexity, design and usefulness."  When I am in the woods, I am in awe of God's creativity in the berries, leaf structures, details in the bark of trees, variety of birds and small animals and of how in all of it's gnarly, knotted, viney chaos there is still beauty and peace.  It is direct communion with our Creator, all encompassing wonder and awe...it's no wonder I come out of the woods feeling renewed.   Adventure on amici!