Something I can barely explain is stirring from the deepest parts of my heart, rooting from my very soul.
An opening sentence to a blog post like the one above, is intimidating to write. I just set an expectation for you the reader, that I am going to reveal, elaborate, and expound on something profound. The struggle in sharing with you now, is that this thought is just a seed. It hasn’t yet crested above the dark soil of my heart for you to see the sprout.
A few weeks ago I returned from teaching a Spring In The Smokeys workshop in Tennessee. Keith stayed behind to run tours and workshops in Charleston, and so on a Friday morning I packed my gear and headed north.
I adore Townsend, Tennessee. It’s the place where the only thing sweeter than the tea ate the folks who sip it. The roofs are made of tin, and in the backyard the wild turkeys freely wander. This is the place where folks actually use their front porch. I drove by a particular small home tucked into the side of the mountain and the same couple and this same tiny house sat outside in their front yard around a camp fire. A river runs through the town and the wild flowers are celebrated and spoken of like the return of old familiar friends. The folks who live here regard the number of trails you’ve explored as notches on your belt. It’s a space where hectic ends and peace begins: Where your cell phone works If you stand in the right place and the internet is scarce.
This is the place where wilderness begins.
I checked into my inn, was delighted to find my room had a rocking chair next to the entrance to my room, with a view that overlooked the mountains. I grabbed the book I had been studying on Mountain Theology and rocked back and forth as the sun started to set. It was in that moment that a seed was planted.
Perhaps its purpose. When the Lord whispers something to your heart, you listen. When He speaks to a specific topic over a number of years, you know He’s really up to something.
My greatest rest is found in a place of some of my greatest adventures: Wilderness.
I have found that when the Lord plants a seed thought in my heart, I guard it like a newborn. I’m careful who I share it with. I discuss it very little. I allow it to sit. Absorb it. Watch it. Listen for it. And in doing that, I’m able to come to place where I co-create with God. That’s what happened when I wrote the Bible Study, Filled: His Presence Our Purpose.
If you’ve arrived at my website and you’ve taken the time to read this blog, you’re my friend. And while I sit here pondering what is coming, I can tell you that God is putting something deep into my heart that is so profound it feels sacred. It’s a place where I’ll travel back to where He first found me, back to my wilderness, and the transition from wilderness to an abundant, thriving garden. This is a place where my purpose is swirled into my need for nature, the photography that flows from those experiences, and my time finding both myself and much more importantly God in those quests.
Would you like to join me? I don’t know how long this journey will take. I don’t know how quickly He will reveal everything He’s wanting to reveal, but I’m excited and I hope you’d like to travel this road with me here on our Quest For Light.
hailey briley
May 15, 2018I love this post so much!