Inahle

Spring Soccer Saturday is upon us!  Since we are going to spend at least 6 hours in the car today, I decided to start the day with a nice brisk walk as the sun was rising in the eastern sky.  Usually on my walks I listen to my “Exercise” playlist, songs chosen to motivate me to sweat and keep moving.  But this morning, with all that is going on in our lives right now, I just wanted quiet.  Initially all I heard was the sound of my own breath heavily moving in and out of my lungs.  In and of itself the human’s drive to breathe, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, blood replenished with fuel passing back into the heart is miraculous.  And too often I am so busy, I don’t even hear that miracle twelve to fifteen times a minute.  But today I quieted my heart and prayed as I took a slow deep breath in, “Lord, what do you want me to hear today?”  Exhale.  Inhale, “help me to listen for You.”  Exhale. 

Then the beautiful alto call of the sand cranes caught my attention.  Distant at first, but close enough that I could hear them, and not just their echo off the hills, carried by the slight breeze.  Scanning the hillsides my eyes lifted up to the foot of the mountains, and then carried up further to the snow laden peaks showing off against the clear blue sky.  No more pink from sunrise on the hills, just pristine white.  Inhale.  Exhale.  “Lord, You are so creative.  You made this world so breathtaking.”  Then the geese started to honk.   I didn’t see many of them, but one took flight and headed away from the stream that I was now aware of; the sound of flowing water, life, coming down through the crevice in the field, moving quickly over the smooth round stones.  Then a multitude of singing birds  began to sing to each other.  All different types of meadow birds rose up in the air, some bickering with each other, others busying themselves with finding the days worms.  The subtle low frequency blowing of a light breeze through the neighbors pine trees felt like the backdrop to a spectacular musical movement.  Off in the distance I could hear another flowing stream, this one with more water, coming from the early melt off after the heavy snow from this winter.  “Lord, I hear You.  Life everywhere.  Your creation singing the songs you have written for it.”  Inhale.  Exhale.  Then I heard my favorite sound in our little corner of the world.  I know that it comes from one of the small birds, and years of Google searches have come up empty; mostly because before today, I searched for bird calls.  But today I saw the small creator of it; a tiny, dark bird, that beats its wings, and then coasts, but while it is coasting, it flutters its wings, and the air flowing across those fluttering wings creates the most pleasant sound.  Inhale.  Exhale.  The further and faster I walked, my own heartbeat became a part of the creation song playlist that set my pace today. 

Before I left God’s concert hall, also known as Upper Luther Road, I stood and took a video to send to my sweet baby girl.  She loves God’s songs just as much as I do.  And while she is away, and unable to walk with me, I carry her in my heart.  We are all so intensely homesick for her and her for us.  She is a part of everything we do, even while she is gone. Her week has been filled with ups and downs.  Her body is fighting being healed.  At the hands of her therapist, her body comes into alignment and relief is found.  Then she leaves and her body wants to go back to the way it has been for the last year, causing her pain.  Isn’t that a profound picture of the human heart?  God wants to align our hearts towards His, towards the way that is right and good, but so often we return to our own path, simply because it is habit and familiar, but ultimately that is not the best way.  We are praying for her body to accept healthy alignment and for all that fights against it to be calmed and quieted.  She is choosing to quiet her activities and rest between treatments.  Sort of like turning off the playlist this morning, and just listening for God, she is going to spend a week just being quiet.  I am praying that the miraculous chorus of God’s creation will fill her moments up just as they did mine this morning.   Maybe laying in the sun on a blanket in a park while the flowers are blooming and trees blossoming and birds calling will be just the song that can help heal her.  I know that listening to God’s creation praising Him today was healing for me. 

“Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightening and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creature and flying birds…”

Psalms 148:7-10

“Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them”

Psalms 96:11