Have you ever stood quietly, very quietly, on a hot and humid early summer evening after a rain in the middle of a corn field? Have you ever heard the corn grow? At first the sounds of leaves moving or the highway beyond the field is all you can hear. Beyond the ever-present sound of insects there is a background sound like water rushing. When you begin to focus on it, you realize this sound surrounds you. It is the sound of the growing part of the stalk moving past the older parts, rubbing, moving and growing.
Have you ever watched clouds on the horizon to see what we used to call “heat lightening?” Not really caused by a hot, humid summer afternoon, it is the refection of lightening on tall thunderheads in storms far away. If those storms are to the west, have you ever taken the time to watch the storm grow from a cloud “the size of a man’s fist” into a front that overwhelms everything in its path? Have you ever heard the sound of thunder moving beyond you to the east, as the storm passes over?
Have you ever stood still near the shore of a small inland lake and felt the fry (juvenile fish) nibble at your legs? Have you ever dangled your feet from a dock with bread balled up and caught between your toes? If you are very quiet and motionless you can feel the fish nibble at the bread, brushing your feet.
Have you ever stopped long enough to be recharged by the world around you?
Have a great vacation.
Grace and peace.
