The trail shown in the picture is one we call meditation trail. It is located on a friends property in Beattyville Kentucky. He and his wife have been kind enough to let me camp there in times past and for the last two years I have walked this trail with my dogs nearly everyday. I will always remember the times spent with friends sitting around a fire or the times I was able to simply stretch out on the ground listening to the wind in the trees, warming myself in the sunshine as it filtered down through the trees. During these times my Carolina Yellow dogs would run up and down the ridges chasing after wild turkey, dig for chipmonks,
locate box turtles, which they brought to me in exchange for a treat, all the while keeping an eye on the trees watching for squirrells.
After two years of living here we are heading back to SW Florida. Cape Coral to be exact. We still have a home there so we are in the process of selling our home here in Beattyville and heading home.
I have spent considerable thought on why we relocated here only to head back to Florida. I appreciate the geography, the culture and the people here. I do understand that I am not going back south as the same person who left there.
The time spent here in the words of Dickens have been "the best and the worst of times". The past two years have been lean and we have been in what seems to me to have been a survival mode.
The upside is that I have grown spiritually. My understanding of fulfilled prophecy has increased as has the understanding of the doctrine of inclusion.
Keven Beck has coined a word that describes where I am now .... Agape Theology. It has always been about unconditional love which/who pursues us. I am no longer a "God Chaser". I realize now that it was God who was doing the chasing!
I feel like I have been set apart for a season for the purpose of maturing. I know I go forward as a more loving, accepting, and generous human being. I find rest in knowing that I have learned to experience God in the reality of the here and
now. It is in the moment where I realize his glorious presence.
I trust my experience will be my expression in the days to come. Many today need love, hope and encouragement.
The reason I chose the picture at the beginning of this entry is because it not only shows me at one of my favorite places with a special friend, Buddy Cooper, but it speaks to the fact that I am in process of moving on.
I am thankful for The Presence Ministires folks, Doug and Tim King, Allen Brooks, Mike Williams and others who have shared with me in many ways during this "come without the camp" season of my life. Amy May from Women Beyond has been a blessing as well. Although her website is called "Women Beyond" it is really relevant for both genders.
As a musician It has been a quiet two years but that is ok. I have learned to enjoy the spaces between the notes. I think I take something new back to the community of musicians and artists that I know in SW Florida.
Stay tuned for my next entry which will probably be after we get settled in back in our home in Florida. It has been two years of loving wonder and I suspect I will find the same kind of loving wonder in Cape Coral.
As I end this post I will leave you with my walking heart song:
Father God you are so good to me,
Father God you are so good to me,
I have experienced your love in the land of the living,
Father God you are so good to me.
When I think about your love,
When I think about your goodness,
When I think about all those things that you have brought me through
As high as the heavens above ....
So great is the measure of your love,
Great is the measure of your unending love.
