summer backpacking

click the picture for a slide show of this week's journey. 

I just returned from a backpacking trip in the North Cascades with my daughter, who just returned from working on a farm in Austria this summer. If you've ever wondered why we who live in the Pacific Northwest endure the rain (if 'endure' is the proper word), some of us will answer, "because of the mountains", and then proceed to post a few of our pics from our latest outing. Such is the case for me. The flowers were the most significant part of this journey for me. They were stunning. Lavish colors, excessive shapes, generous scents, joyful countenance; each one was a testimony to Jesus' words in Matthew six about the lilies. "More splendor than Solomon in all His glory", as Jesus once said. Yes, it surely does seem that God loves beauty. But most powerful of all was time spent pondering the reality that these same flowers will all be gone in a matter of days. They won't be museum pieces, but these works of living art will decay and become the stuff, the matter, of a different generation. Here today...gone tomorrow. Blink: you're young and beautiful. Blink: you're in the middle of life and the sun is heading west. Blink: it's time to go.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of Wisdom"

"Man's days are like the grass..."

We walked in silence through the flora festival. The sun is heading west in my life already, as my youngest heads off to college in a few short weeks. What am I doing with my days, my time, my gifts? Like the flowers, we're born for beauty, born to bless, born to serve in outlandish and creative ways. Like the flowers, our days are numbered. I came back from this little backpacking trip with a renewed commitment to stewardship and service, to living each day as fully and joyfully as possible, knowing that soon I'll need to blink again. Enjoy the pictures... we certainly enjoyed the hike.

Peace...