Last post from the Alps.....

Well, I am about to haul out the suitcase and start packing. I leave early tomorrow for home. And as it happens, this is the most glorious of days. The sun is shining, and the snow is blindingly white. The sky is blue, and the traffic is horrendous. The world seems to have arrived here today. Not that I am the least bit surprised, but I am not all that keen on thousands of people actually daring to walk the same paths I am through MY forests. You may just detect a smidgen of territorial huff here today. You would be right.

However, I am a big girl, and I don't really mind sharing at all. I just wanted to walk in my forest alone for a while, but that was not to be. It was still beautiful. Stunning. I took many photos, but I don't know how to get them off the camera, because all the instructions on the screen are in German and I am out of my depth here. I can understand it spoken, and can speak a fair bit, but reading is another story. There are a few gaps in the education, it seems.

Back to my walk. It was -10 degrees C. Very cold. VERY cold. Especially when one forgets one's hat and scarf. But I did remember my trusty Leki pole. This morning I walked around the lake, and then had a coffee with Marge and came home to thaw for an hour before I headed up the mountain. My physio will not be able to complain re the exercises. And speaking of physio, I am back there again on Tuesday at dawn.

Sigh. Normal life beckons. Today, as I sat on a very cold bench in the forest, I had a little chat with God. Well, I always think He is walking through the forests with me, you see, so I talk a lot. But every time I stood up, I could think of another to sit back down. So I said, ok then, I will sit here until You SPEAK to me. Loud and clear, if you please. And in between smiling and greeting every one of the 4,900,974,289,642,428 people who walked past me, I heard the words....Look up. Huh?? That is it? Look up?? I was expecting more. Look up?

So I did. At the trees towering over me, the blue sky, the snow and the mountains. And then I saw the little sign on the rock close by which said in German, Here is His greatest work, or something like that. And I understood. I was sitting in a place which is beyond words, created not by man, but by Him. I looked up again, and I realised that if I just walked along the path watching my feet, I could completely miss the spectacular beauty all about me. So too, in life. If I am so caught up in the things which seem impossible, I will miss seeing the beauty all around me. He created all this. Nothing, then, is impossible for Him.

The challenges that I face, the worries which worm their way into my mind now and then....all of them....are so small really. I need to keep looking up, keep believing He has the controls, keep trusting that He knows where I am heading next, and keep living in the knowledge that He gave me this place where I find such peace and happiness for a reason, and that He will bring me back again very soon.

All things are possible. He said so. And I look up and believe.