I plugged the address of my hotel into the GPS, checked my messages one last time in Wi-Fi range, took a sip of my coffee, and hit “GO”. Mavis, my lovely electronic travel companion, immediately piped up.
“Follow the highlighted route.”
Cool, chica…road trip!
I love to drive. The fact that I’ve put 42,000 miles on my truck in 23 months should be proof enough. This trip to DC brought me over Shenandoah Mountain with its myriad twists and turns and steep 9% grades. The Virginia/West Virginia border crosses at the peak with a stunning view of the Shenandoah Valley below. Purple mountains’ majesty.
Once at the bottom, on the Virginia side, there is a long straight stretch that takes you through a portion of the George Washington National Forest. The sun was just reaching the 10:00 point when I noticed the way it beamed down through the trees, sending rays of light splashing on the gun-barrel highway. I glanced behind and ahead…no one within sight. I pulled over, turned off the truck, rolled the windows down, and breathed deep the loamy wet scent of the deciduous forest floor. The morning dew dripping from leaf to leaf sounded like bacon frying far off. Bird songs echoed like the plunk of a small waterfall…lilting, melodic. Life in C Minor.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons wafted out the sunroof to serenade the unseen creatures in the woods. A breeze stirred, it’s gentle fingers brushing a tendril of my lengthening gray against my cheek…the cool air bringing a thrill on the backs of my bare arms. Autumn is nearing. Mother Nature is wearing the tired green of late summer. I closed my eyes and smiled.
I had miles to go. In a couple of hours I would be weaving my way through the lunch hour traffic of our nation’s capital. But, for this one moment, here on a deserted stretch of wooded highway, I enjoyed a quiet gathering in God’s holiest of churches. I was in HIS house. And, in that moment, my life was perfect.
❤️
““But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
Job 12:7-10 NIV