Date: April 27, 2004.

I’ve been able to start doing normal activities more of the time. The past month has been great. However, I got overwhelmed at some point and wanted to get away from the phone and email and people coming over (yikes! everybody needs me!), and just use Sabbath to reflect and renew away from home. So like last Spring, I went back to Conners Lake, just 5 miles past Loomis on the way to the Seinlehekin wilderness. I spent 7 hours there in silence, observing nature.

There were dark clouds above the closest mountain and fluffy white clouds above the weeping willows and pine trees adorning the hillsides. When I first came, someone was using a chainsaw in the distance. I was going to try to get away from all signs of human activity. But I decided to wait it out and see if it would quit. It did. Also at the beginning, there were bluebirds and red-winged blackbirds and Canada Geese flying everywhere!!! I realized later that my exhaust pipe was much too noisy for them. They settled down later.

To the left, in the distance two mountains were blue. The closest range, on my right side, was green. There were bluebirds flitting over the bushes and over the water, sometimes over my head. There were red-wing blackbirds galore. Their favorite sitting place is on top of cattails. When they would make a noise, they would ruffle their feathers.

The Canada Geese were in pairs on the lake, amidst the beautiful reflection of the blue mountains, the pine trees, and the cattails. The wind was snapping the dry dead cattail reeds back and forth. A black spider curiously scampered across my blanket, and I shook it off. Three red-winged black birds were chasing each other. There was an anthill with thousands of red and black ants. I think from where I was sitting, it wasn’t far enough away from the anthill. I kept getting ants on my blanket. It was only later on the walk back that I discovered the anthill. Far off in the distance, a woodpecker was knocking. There were gnats in the air, swarming around having a party, like gnats love doing.

As I watched the Canada geese in pairs on the water, I noticed that the two pairs seemed to be communicating with each other at some distance. I fancied that if I had brought a tablet of paper with me, that I could write down the types of sounds. It sounded like it meant something. If only I could figure out their language. After about ten minutes (and you will laugh at this), one of the geese of the couple on the left sounded like they were saying “Uh-huh” to what the couple on the right were saying.

“Honk, honk-honk.” (There are some tender shoots over here.)

“Uh-huh.”

“Honk, honk, honk-honk.” (You can have some if you want.)

“Uh-huh.”

I imagined for a moment it was a goose telephone. You know, like we say “Uh-huh” when someone’s on the phone. I watched how their communication changed when I moved around. It was like I knew what they were thinking and talking about. After awhile, as they observed that my camera was harmless and so was I, then their communication when I walked around wasn’t so anxious. The same about the red-winged black bird.

Upon the return home, I felt renewed, and determined to start saying No *more* often and guarding my energy. God has a good reason for Sabbath….ya gotta rest sometime! If you feel overwhelmed, consider going into nature and reflecting. It will do wonders. Worry and never resting is not good for your adrenal glands. One thing this adventure reminded me is to have faith that God will provide for me – because all the birds are well-provided for.