Contemplative Hiking

Scattered and Not Scattered

Ever flee to the mountains to clear your head?

When work, family, and responsibilities become overwhelming, it's time for some self-care. The wilderness gives me a chance to let all that anxiety and stress roll off my shoulders--not just by escaping the brain-fog and scatter-brained state, but by transcending it. In the woods, where the trees and the earth stand still and in harmony I have space to breath. I can "go meta" over all that and realize I am at home. I belong. I am safe. I am accepted as I am by the earth and the One who made it. Unconditional and insistent love--that is what awaits us, when we hear the mountains calling our name.

A Stretched Brain

Sometimes I just can't think straight. I feel muddled, I get brain-fog, scatter-brained. These are all the euphemisms I've used to describe a state of anxiety-induced confusion. There is often a pinch of fear, and at least two cups of invisible shame. It's like Bilbo Baggins said, sometimes my brain feels like "butter scraped over too much toast." Out in the woods, my brain has a chance to relax.

Going Meta

This is when you starting thinking about the fact that you are thinking. I've heard this described as self-consciousness, mindfulness, even "blooping". If you've done it, you know it's not as self-absorbed as it sounds. You enter a state where you can observe not just yourself, but your environment in a new way. You begin to see connections and possibilities that were hidden before. When I "go meta" out in the woods, it's as if all of God's invisible qualities start oozing out of the ground, trickling over the rocks, rustling through the leaves, and throbbing just beneath the surface of the bark of the cedar tree.

Leaning into Love

If you're like me, you would never want to go home from this experience. It feels like to leave it would be to leave home. It feels like being an infant, resting in her mother's tender embrace.

But in the bustle of our daily lives, we lose this sense of safety and security. That's when it takes intentionality to lean into that Love daily. We can do this through mindfulness, yoga, therapy, even talking with a sponsor or mentor about whatever is troubling us. We can taste this when snagging a glimpse of something beautiful. The key is to lean into those fleeting moments of serenity. Like leaning into a strong wind on a mountain peak, it can be scary. We might feel tense at first, not sure if it will really hold us up, afraid that if we put all our weight into it, we'll fall. But in the case of this Love and affection offered by the God who is there, I've found that the harder you lean, the tighter he holds you.

The art I create is designed to facilitate this cathartic experience right in your home. On the days you can't make it to the trail, my prayer is that the free-flowing colors and the crisp edges will give you that sense of freedom and security that I find in God's presence among the trees. Please don't be afraid to lean into Love.

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