I was just thinking this morning as I drove into work, I really miss the rain. I can’t remember the last time I was out and about on a rainy day. There is something to refreshing and lively about rain. I realize it’s still the winter, but I know that spring is just around the corner. I can’t wait to smell the freshness of the outdoors and see the new life popping up everywhere. We really are surrounded by miracles on a daily basis.

As soon as I can, I really want to commit more time to nature and spending my days outdoors. I certainly feel like God speaks to us through art and nature. I know all of this sounds overly artsy, but it’s true. There is peace in the silence of the mountain trails. There is love in the sounds of chirping birds. There is an absolute truth in the smell after a hard rain. All of these things really bring me back to that intimate relationship with my God.

So in conclusion, anyone want to go on some hiking trips with me this spring/summer?

Today, I started reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau. So far it is really interesting. I find 19^th century literature to be really beautiful. It’s funny, because Thoreau is pretty much speaking in scientific terms about the psychology of man, and why we go through our everyday life. Yet the way in which he writes is very poetic rather than prose driven. Anyway, I will let you know my thoughts on it once I finish it. Here is a little sentence from it that stuck out for me:

“See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal or divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds.”