Tranquility

What a beautiful place to have such a beautiful experience. I was drawn to churches as a little girl because I'd heard so much about "God's love." I wanted to learn more about the original architect/landscaper, because it was all so beautiful.

Church was a strange time in my life. It felt like a holy place, but it was so noisy - even when it was quiet. It felt awkward to pray and focus on God when there were so many people around. It appeared to me the people placed more focus on each other than they did God. I'd look around, and I'd only see things made by man - not God - and people worshipping these things and each other. It felt odd that God would want us to worship our own creations on a day set aside for Him. It felt selfish to give Him only one day, and take the other six for ourselves.

As I was walking home from church one day I realized I could still feel that presence - that energy source you speak of. I went out to the woods and realized it was so much easier to pray and focus on God while out in the elements He created.

We had a huge tornado hit our town in '67 on my 9th birthday. When they cleaned up the mess, they piled all the refuse in one spot in a vacant area. For my friend and I, this became our "mountain."

We'd set our alarm clocks under our pillows, then meet on the corner before dawn. We'd race over to our mountain on our bikes, climb to the top, and watch the sun rise. It placed a feeling in my heart that things would be okay - even if they weren't okay, they'd be as they should be. It gave me a feeling of peace to start my day along with the sun.

We'd sometimes laugh about our religions. She was Catholic and learned I'd be going to Hell because I'm Lutheran. I learned she was going to Hell because she was Catholic. We figured we'd just sit up on our mountain as friends and let them fight it out amongst themselves. We later found out we were BOTH going to Hell because we weren't "saved." Geesh, lol. We were best friends until the day she died (cancer), at the age of 26. I don't care what ANYONE says - that woman did NOT go to Hell.

To this day, I'm up before dawn to greet the new morning - good day or bad. I'm disabled and mostly homebound now, so I don't get out as much as I used to. Fortunately, I manage to get out there when I need to.

I'm glad you feel that peaceful connection to the earth. You can recall these experiences whenever you need to find some balance in your life.