Stillness

One thing I have struggled to find over the last few months, or even the last two years, is stillness.

I think that's what my soul craved in my short six week summer last year as I got on my bike and rode to the nature trail every day, taking time to stop and sit by the small pond with a fountain at the middle. 

Different bodies of water cause the water to act in different ways. In the oceans, it rolls in waves. In the streams, it flows. In the rivers, it rushes. But in a pond or lake, it just sits there still, occasionally showing a trace of movement with the wind. 

There's something about sitting out here on a deck right above the New Song classroom, overlooking a quiet pond, that brings a natural sense of peace and tranquility. 

It's much easier to be still while sitting out here. I'm making it a point to try out all the different picnic tables and spots to sit, whether it be in my egg chair in front of the camper in the morning, at the picnic table right in front of the pond, the one on the deck on the other side of the pond that looks over toward the school house, or the one on the deck just outside the kitchen upstairs. 

There's a reason the Psalms say our Shepherd leads us beside still waters. They truly do have the power to restore your soul when needed.

There's also something about a campfire that just beckons you to sit down and rest for awhile. To sit and stare at the crackling flames and give your body and mind a break from the constant movement and need to be productive. A campfire is automatic permission to just be still.

Mike has been working non-stop since before Christmas. First in trying to get ahead enough at work to be able to take 3 weeks off to help his mom. Then in dealing with his dad's funeral, his mom's surgery, and cleaning out a house that had not been tended to in a long, long while. After that, it was all he could do to keep his head above water trying to catch up after being gone from work for three weeks, plus trying to sort through all of his dad's tools and belongings he brought back with him, and reconnect with me after a long absence, with no bit of free time or down time.

Then when we agreed that God was calling us to move back to Indiana, it was non-stop cleaning out , purging, and sorting through our own belongings of the last 19 years in Texas. With his hobby being an outdoor, mechanical one, he had a lot of tools, parts, and things I couldn't even recognize strewn all out over the driveway and shoved onto trailers, shelves, corners in the yard, and all over the garage floor and driveway. It was not a light task to go through it all and prepare to move.

He worked non-stop until the very day we proposed to move, into the next day and all the way till that evening. Then here he jumped right in to all things camping related (things I'm so thankful he knows how to do because I'm completely helpless) while also working full-time between two different jobs. Needless to say, he's been busy. 

But last night we finally had a quiet evening back at the camper, so we were able to rig up a fire ring to start our first little campfire.

And once it got going, we both had a chance to just sit in the stillness and tranquility, stare at the flames, talk about life, and just "be" together. For as long as we're here in the RV until we move into a house, I look forward to the evenings we can just sit in front of the fire. Almost a forced rest, a given permission to be still. A great way to have a chance to connect.