“Where” is Calling You?

One of my favorite quotations, “The mountains are calling and I must go” by naturalist John Muir succinctly expresses that persistent urge to get up, get out and get away. I’ve long wrestled with the strangely recurring question of “mountains or ocean?” when considering the best vacation getaway. It’s something Christopher have discussed more than a handful of times and the answer I return to again and again is mountains. I love to visit the beach, but as I’ve attempted to explain (likely inadequately), it does not fill me or feed me or restore me in quite the same way. The ocean demands my awe and reverence and certain measure of vigilance. Yes, peace and rest can be found there as well as amongst the steep and stunning mountains, but I’ve yet to feel cradled by its loving embrace and nurtured back to wholeness after months of draining ragged routine. The ocean and the surrounding environment just doesn’t feel like “me”. The deep, lush, wetness and green-ness of the mountains somehow, does. Somehow it’s easier to just BE. It’s probably one of those things that is pretty inexplicable and unique to us all. Yet, I keep coming back to Muir’s words which pointed to the higher elevations and not the lower. I wonder why? Maybe the age-old reason.... Maybe we feel closer to nature, closer to God as we climb toward where we imagine “heaven” to exist.

Whatever the case may be, all I can say is I can’t recall the last time I felt so nourished by nature as the last time we visited the mountains in southwestern Virginia a few weeks ago. Skimming down the Virginia Creeper Trail, a popular bike trail converted from an aging railway. The rich, damp air alive with the color and movement of the newest butterflies of early summer, dozens of trilling waterfalls and bubbling brooks, the green canopy seemed to envelope me, the sweet air filling me up with new breath and new life as it displaced old, stale energies and burdens that needed to be left behind. Somehow, this healing, restorative experience is critically essential and the need to get away to the mountains increasingly urgent the more time that passes without them. I could compare it to shedding the city skin and self with all of its baggage and worries and woes in exchange for a fresh new skin, a fresh new start where all things seem possible and it does not feel so risky to let go of those old pains, beliefs and concerns. It feels not only less costly to really let go but also necessary to do so.

Perhaps God calls each of us to these places, spiritual-spa destinations where we can slough off the old and receive a brand new start, revealing a fresh layer gleaming and freshly scrubbed and exposed, places unique to each of us. Maybe for some it is the ocean, for others, the open plains or the desert canyons, yet for still others the verdant complexity of the mountains. Perhaps finding spiritual refreshment is tied to our soul’s unique personality and what best speaks to it and feeds it. Perhaps our souls were birthed in one of these many unique settings and to return to it means explicit restoration and renewal - the kind one cannot easily explain. No doubt, we find this nurturing from God in each of these places. I believe the important key is that we heed the entreating call wherever the destination may be -- Nature is calling, and we must go.