Lost?

God is...

Philip Chard, psychotherapist, award winning newspaper columnist, and fine human being, writes the weekly column “Out of My Mind” which runs every Tuesday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  He also graciously wrote the endorsement for my memoir.  In his May 14, 2013 column titled “Finding one’s way is no easy journey” he suggests, “…existential disorientation calls for visiting one’s existential home, which is the natural world.”  Chard’s words transported me back to times when my internal GPS (God Positioning System) helped re-orient me mentally, spiritually and psychologically.  Conveying those special times became my primary goal in writing God Never Hurries.

There was the candlelight walk at a nearby state park on Lake Michigan’s shore …There was special mystery in the dark fall air.  It was as if God was right there.  The leaves were wet soft, and silent under our feet.  As we walked in the black velvet night each step required a little faith….  Then there was the windy winter walk to the valley …As I entered that more gently sloping entrance into the calm valley, I slipped on slick ice under this fresh deep snow.  But it was like falling on a soft white cushion.  A floor of very slippery, but deeply cushioned ice was in much of the valley.  I fell or crawled or sometimes just sat down—moving like a child learning to walk.  I was like a child learning to walk with deeper spiritual and psychological discovery….  And …I rolled back up a large drift at the mouth of the valley that I had rolled over to get to the beach, but before rolling down the other side I stopped at the top to appreciate the brilliant blue sky.  There I decided I needed to have more faith and a lot less fuss and debate with myself…. And I responded to the sweet young outfitter guide’s question as to what I wanted from my wilderness experience—I told Jeremy I just wanted blend into my surroundings.  My body was aching from all the accumulated tension in my back neck and shoulders.  Instinctively I was aching for naturalness….  Every season gave me new and deeper insights that helped me navigate through dark times and brought deep learning. 

Chard concludes his May 14 article suggesting we slow down, practice mindfulness in nature and learn about its ways, and he said it “helps us plant our feet in the real world.”  He ended his column with a quote from the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor who wrote:  “God does some of God’s best work with people who are seriously lost.”  I can attest to that.  What if my internal GPS had not been working when I really needed it?