mountains

gasp
i'm writing again!

i dunno if i will suddenly jump right back into the 3-4 per month average... heck, it may be another few months before i write another. in fact, honestly there's no guarantee i will finish this one and actually post it i suppose... ^_^

life has just been so busy
busier than ever i think

between school, navs, and pl-ing i just don't have a lot of time
even my actual journal has been dry when it comes to my own thoughts and prayers

but even with the busyness
i'm sure there's an element of laziness
or wasting time elsewhere

and at least a little bit of writing out my thoughts can be good for me
and hopefully for you too :)


basically i was home for the month of may- just being with my family. i had no job or responsibilities. a once in a lifetime chance perhaps, but it was so good. :)

for june and july i was at stp
summer training program
it's a navs thing
hopefully i'll get around to writing about it sometime or another...

but for now i have other things on my mind

and i had to come straight back to school in august for fall ra training
which went straight in to this crazy school year

this last weekend we had our navs fall conference
it was so good to see stp friends from other schools who were there :)
and the conference itself was pretty good

it was also our fall break
so after the conference i went off on my own to asheville...
it was such a remarkable day!
when i got there i sent a text to google and got directions to the nearest state park
and i ended up on the blue ridge parkway- a state park/road that runs from northern virginia to western north carolina (maybe east tennessee?)
i drove along for a ways, stopping at each overlook (there was probably one every mile or so)
like this:
















eventually the road went over this ridge where you could see off both sides. there was a little ranger station and a few trails. i took a quick hike to the top of "crabby pinnacle" which was the highest peak in the area. and oh my goodness... the pictures can't compare to being there. it was breathtaking. it made me want to giggle and smile.
















i spent some time up top praying and reading my bible. and wrote a note on the back of a postcard for erin.

then i looked at a map and realized that there was a place called mount mitchel just 10 more miles down the road. i looked closer and realized that it was the highest peak in north america on this side of the mississippi river! so i ended up there as well :)

































it was such an incredible experience! the temperature got down to the high 30s and the wind was about like you'd imagine it would be at the highest point for thousands of miles. so i didn't spend terribly too much time up there. :)

afterwards i went back to asheville to visit megan. we had a great time talking and catching up on life. it was so nice to finally get a glimpse of her world.

but anyways, back to the mountains...
it was like a special gift. :)
i had asked God to allow us to have a great afternoon together. but i was expecting i would spend time alone with him in a local park in Asheville. or something simple like that.
i had no idea that he would lead me on such an adventure!
i really had no clue where i would end up.
and the end was so marvelous!

when i was up there, i just couldn't get enough of the mountains. it didn't get boring looking at them.
they were so grand and majestic.
they were big and powerful.
they were colorful and lively.
they were so green, which i have decided is my favorite color.
and you can't really tell from the pictures i put up i guess, but with the beginning of fall there were perfect splotches of yellows and reds and browns.

the way they changed on the way up was so beautiful.
at first all of the trees were green and "normal"
the higher i got the more scraggly they looked. and the more multi-colored they were.
and as i got even higher there were more and more evergreens.

you could look out and see row after row.
and when you looked to the southeast, way in the distance you could see a flat horizon and even make out the curve of the earth.

God did such a tremendous job making them.
He must be so absolutely proud of them. :)

but then i was floored
because His word tells me that He is even more proud of me!
He thinks that you and i are even more beautiful.
He took me all the way up there, not just because they are great.
but because He wanted me to experience their greatness with him.
He wanted to share them with me
to see my joy
to be with me up there.
to Him,
I was the whole point of that adventure!

oh how special we are to God :)