Wonderful post yesterday by Arianna Huffington in her HuffPost blog titled "Hemingway, Thoreau, Jefferson and the Virtues of a Good Long Walk" in which she writes about just that: how walkign is good for creative thinking, for general all-purpose thinking, for general psychological and physiological benefits.

"So it truly seems like there is no end to the problems that can be solved by walking. It makes us healthier, it makes us fitter, it enhances every kind of cognitive performance, from creativity to planning and scheduling. Best of all, it reconnects us to ourselves. And there is nothing paradoxical about that."

So again I say, go walking!

About Fire from Heaven

I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, VA on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, 30 June 2013, and based on the Gospel for the day St. Luke 9:51-62, with illustration and explanation from the Epistle for the day, Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord!

Dear Friends in Christ,

This morning there are, I'm quite sure, a lot of sermons being preached in this country about this past week's Supreme Court decisions, whether the rolling back of part of the Voting Rights Act, or the declaration that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. This isn't one of those sermons. This sermon, like all of my sermons -- like all of our sermons -- is about Jesus.

You've gotta love these disciples! James and John, especially. The two sons of Zebedee the fisherman. The two whom Jesus nicknamed the "Sons of Thunder." Our Gospel for today shows one of the reasons why they deserved and earned this nickname: they seemed to have lightning quick fuses when they proposed immediate action to 'remedy' (as they saw it) situations that faced them.

But when you think about it, thunder doesn't really seem to do anything, does it? Except maybe startle us. It's the lightning that does something. And the wind. And the rain. The thunder, however, is just noise. It's loud. It's threatening. But while it accompanies the violent storms of summer, thunder itself doesn't seem to do anything.

And these two disciples were called "Sons of Thunder." Little echoes of thunder. Look at today's Gospel for an example of how they operated.

Jesus and company were on their way to Jerusalem and they had the option of stopping over in a Samaritan village. The disciples and their Master were not Samaritans themselves. So the villagers did not receive Jesus because they could tell he was headed for Jerusalem. And then James and John step forward with a proposal to fix things, and fix them good. They said "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" Because, you know, that would really help convince these Samaritans of the goodness of the Gospel message Jesus had been preaching all this time.

You can sort of wonder two things when you read this passage. One is to ask yourself "How in the world did Jesus put up with these characters?" And another is to think about how these disciples would so easily fit into present-day American society. Isn't their snap reaction, their thunderous proposal, just the sort of thing that our country is overfull with? In this DC region where national politics is our local news, we know this all too well, don't we? One politician makes a statement or proposal or suggestion. And we all know that the immediate reaction from someone on the other side of the aisle will be to command fire to come down from heaven to consume that politician. Swiftly, decisively, before there can even be time to digest and understand the first politician's suggestion, the impulse is to strike back and reject the proposal out of hand.

Talk radio commentators seem to do the same, as do the people who phone in to their shows. People writing on the internet, too. Tweeters and Facebookers. Everyone in our culture seems infected with this desire to call down fire from heaven to consume other people whom we picture as members of some group we aren't in.

It happens in politics. It happens in sports with trash-talking athletes at all kinds of levels. It happens in business. It even happens in the Church. Yes, there are factions and party spirit in the Church. If you look in your history books you can find a lot of calls for fire from heaven to consume the other side in religious controversies. Whenever someone seems to step outside the strict boundaries of whatever orthodoxy is at center stage, the other party calls down condemnations. Sometimes it was mass excommunication of whole countries or empires. Sometimes it was executions of individual believers from the other side. Sometimes it has meant getting the political leaders to call up armies to bring their lightning and thunder to bear against the opposition.

These days we seem a little more refined in the Church. When someone heads in a little different direction, there are accusations and threats and condemnations that appear first in tweets and blogs on the internet, then in publications, then in resolutions and declarations, open letters, the secular media, and wherever else someone can get their fire to catch and burn. Yes, even in the Church.

And in all these cases -- in politics and sports and business and the Church, in high school and on the Internet, through private conversations or public declarations -- in all these cases, the usual immediate reaction is to strike back, calling down fire from heaven on the first party. And back and forth and back again.

Jesus proposes another way.

To James and John, wanting to call down fire on the Samaritan village, Jesus gave a rebuke. He reminded them of their mission. And He took them on to another village. But what about the first village? What about the general Samaritan wandering away from Jewish orthodoxy? What about their rejection of Jesus? In our world where conservatives attack liberals, where liberals attack conservatives, where both attack the middle; in our world where different parties of Muslims launch wars on other parties; in our world where many of us can remember Christian on Christian violence in places like Northern Ireland, and where we can easily find (or be either victim or perpetrator of) violent language where Christians attacks each other over all sorts of issues; in this world of hurt and misunderstanding, in this world of sinful action and reaction ... Jesus proposes another way.

Here in our Gospel Jesus distills it to two words: "Follow Me." In quick succession along the road to village number 2, Jesus directs his followers how to follow: 1) be aware of the cost (while the animals have homes, know that such security is not promised to disciples); 2) focus on the living by proclaiming the Kingdom of God to them; and 3) if you're going to follow Jesus, then do it and do it wholeheartedly (with an allusion to today's Old Testament lesson wherein Elisha received the call to follow Elijah and immediately gave up his old life by slaughtering his oxen, cooking them on a fire made of the pieces of his wooden plow, and took to the road following the prophet Elijah).

And then St Paul, in the lesson from Galatians, reminds us of another central theme in the Bible by recalling for us that both in the Old Testament and in the teaching of Jesus the whole Law is summarized in the statement that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Love is the fulfilling of the Law. What is NOT the fulfilling of God's plan for us are those "deeds of the flesh" Paul mentions. A large group of those deeds are the failings that seem to describe our culture of knee-jerk wanting to call down fire from heaven to consume our opponents. Listen to these items strung together in the heart of Paul's list: "strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions." (Gal. 5:20-21). Isn't this a description of the culture we live in?

Even if you don't agree there, you have to agree that much of American society, much of our economic system, and much of our culture does not display the fruit of the Spirit that Paul lists next: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23) Those traits are so out of the ordinary for us that if you wrote a story about, say, politicians exercising only these fruits, your story would be placed in the fantasy section of the fiction shelves. Your editor would tell you "People don't do that. People don't live that way. It isn't believable. It's not natural."

Exactly. What is natural are those works of the flesh. What isn't natural to anyone born into our sinful world are those fruits of the Spirit. But the fruits of the Spirit are everyone's ideal, or should be. People just try all sorts of odd ways to get there. Some try to get to love, joy, peace and the rest by forcing other people to come around to their own way of thinking. Some try to find those things by spending impossible amounts of money. Some, I guess, have decided that since they don't feel these fruits in their own lives, that nobody else should either.

So how do we get from our culture where the impulse seems to be calling down fire from Heaven, to a culture where the fruit of the Spirit seems normal?

Jesus counsels love. He tells us through St. Paul to "walk by the Spirit" (Gal. 3:16, 25). Which is hard to do. On our own, anyway. No, actually, it's not "hard" on our own; it's impossible on our own. We would die before we actually walked in the Spirit if it were only up to us. We're pretty well enslaved by our old nature.

But, thank God, Christ has set us free. We've been called to freedom. Our old sinful flesh with its passions and desires has been crucified because we belong to Christ (Gal. 5:2), Saint Paul tells us. So, yes, we have died. And now we do walk by the Spirit. Just not by our own reason or strength.

Living and walking in Christ is something that comes to us from the outside. Being called to discipleship isn't ever our own idea. Jesus calls us with his simple "follow me". His call comes to us through his Word and the gifts of the Sacraments. Then the desire and power to walk in the Spirit by loving our neighbor as ourselves comes from the same Word and Sacraments.

Here we are on Sunday morning wrapping ourselves in these gifts, these means of grace. But we don't need to wait for Sundays to be in those gifts. God's word comes to us in the Scriptures which we are fortunate enough to have available to us in our own languages. We are fortunate enough to be able to own printed copies of the Bible, as many as we want. We are blessed to be able to read God's Word whenever we want to, or to listen to others reading it. We can recall passages, verses, or phrases that have struck our hearts. We can see artwork inspired by Scripture, hear or sing songs inspired by Scripture, maybe create our own artwork inspired by God's Word. We can study the Word with others or by ourselves. We can read, mark, learn, and take it to heart.

And while our Sacramental lives usually spring forth out of congregational life, the effects of the Sacraments carry us though the week, too. Wherever we go, we are baptized. Whether we are walking under the trees God created or down the city streets laid out by people, we are baptized. When we are are sick or healthy, when we are traveling or at home, whether we are working or unemployed, we are still baptized. In all our states and condition, whatever our momentary emotion or passing thought, we are baptized. God's grace never leaves us. His Spirit, who washed us clean at our Baptism is in us every moment. So we never have to try to bear the fruit of the Spirit on our own. You and I are never called to fight off by ourselves the urge to call down fire from Heaven on people who offend or attack us. The Holy Spirit empowers us. We are always filled with the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Sometimes, however, we seem to forget that the Spirit is in us. When we feel weaker, or when we think for some reason that we need to put that yoke of slavery back on our shoulders, we've got still other tools always available to us. The Eucharist feeds us Christ Himself. Our prayer life enriches our thinking with the thoughts of God. Taking those helps into us we live as God would want us to live, serving Him. No longer do we want to call down fire from Heaven to consume others. Rather we seek ways to share God's love and our love with them. Jesus died and rose to life to make this all possible.

We look forward to the fulfilling of all God's promises to us in Heaven, but we are given the chance to have a foretaste -- an appetizer, if you will -- of the heavenly banquet already here on earth when we live by the Spirit, loving our neighbors as ourselves. The quiet, peaceful, loving environment that creates around us is where we find God in our world, it is where others are led to their own lives in the Spirit. Elijah found this out in today's Old Testament lesson. He was certain he was the only believer left on the planet. Then the Lord called Elijah to seek Him out. The Lord wasn't in the great strong wind. The Lord wasn't in the earthquake. The Lord wasn't in the fire that followed. The Lord was in the quiet.

I pray today that all of us here rejoice in the freedom of the Spirit that is already ours by Word and Sacrament as we learn to stop calling down fire from Heaven, but instead practice those quiet fruits of the Spirit which show that we belong to Christ.

Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

S.D.G.

Unlikely Workers

I.N.I.

a sermon to be preached at Our Savior Lutheran Church, Arlington, VA on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, 23 June 2013, and based on the Gospel for the day, St. Luke 8:26-39, with connections to the Epistle for the day, Galatians 3:23-4:7

Grace, mercy and peace be yours in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Dear friends in Christ,

Jesus often seems to pull his workers from really unlikely places and circumstances. He selects a wandering Aramean to be the progenitor of his chosen people. He pulls a tax collector working on behalf of the occupying Romans to be in his inner circle of Jewish disciples. He takes a rabidly right wing Jewish man to be his primary apostle to the first century Gentile world. Throughout history God calls the least and weakest among humanity to be among the people who are both to lead the faithful, and to gather in more from the ends of the earth. In today's Gospel Jesus reaches into the ranks of the most unfortunate to create a missionary preacher.

Our goal this morning is to see how each of us is being called to be God's instrument in the world. No matter what our background, no matter where we come from, or how we have lived our lives thus far, we do not sit beyond the reach of God. God said through Isaiah in today's Old Testament lesson, "I spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; a people who provoke me to my face continually...." (Is. 65:2) In other words, he is constantly reaching out to people who do not seek him, who do not ask for him (65:1). He has done that from the beginning, and continues to do that now.

You and I are among those whom God has reached out to. We are among those whom God has called to be his servants. We are the ones whom he works through today. But like so many of those who came before us, we have often preferred to remain locked in the past, tied to the unhelpful things that date from before Jesus on our personal timelines.

Look with me at the man in today's Gospel. Here's someone who was in a bad spot. He had somehow or other opened himself up to demonic possession. And not just one demon, but a whole host of them -- thousands, perhaps. He was a danger to himself and to others. He was so violent and uncontrolled that his family and neighbors would chain him up so that he wouldn't hurt them or himself. But the demons gave him more than human strength and he would regularly break the chains holding him, and then they would drive him out of the town, away from the living, out into the cemetery where he would live in the tombs. It was a sad, lonely life. An unproductive life. A violent life. An uncontrolled life. A dangerous life. If it continued, it would be a completely wasted life.

Then Jesus appeared. He and his disciples had sailed through a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee (one in which the Lord spoke to the wind and waves to calm things down) and they had landed on the opposite shore. It wasn't far away in miles, but may have been a place the disciples had never been before. It was a Greek region made up of 10 towns that were definitely not a majority Jewish area. They were going to be strangers in a strange land.

That oddness was made clear by the welcome they got. It wasn't from the Welcome Wagon, or the Convention and Visitors' Bureau; it wasn't from Customs and Immigration Enforcement. The welcome they got was from a raving naked man. This is our demon-possessed man out roaming the deserted regions away from town. And he was in full demon mode, too, that morning.

As they landed, Jesus was already commanding the demons to come out of the poor man, but they were resisting. In typical demon fashion they were trying to distract Jesus and confuse his purposes by spinning lies. "What have you to do with me?" they asked. In other words, 'leave me alone, Jesus; this is no concern of yours, nothing interesting happening here; go back where you came from, Jesus.' All that spoken with what the demons meant as a flattering tag line, calling him "Jesus, Son of the Most High God." (Because although they do not have saving faith in Jesus, they do recognize and have to speak the truth about our Lord.)

When Jesus allows the demons to enter the herd of pigs on the hillside, the ruckus moves with them. That really becomes the news of the day as the swineherds run off to spread the story. Our focus should remain back on Jesus. We don't have the minute-by-minute narrative of what happened next, but can tell from the result that the man suddenly came back to his own God-created senses. The disciples went into their luggage to find him some clothes (or did Jesus miraculously create some for him?). Then our Lord began to teach him what he needed to know.

We sure would like to know what Jesus said to him, but that was Jesus's story for that man; and what we really need to listen for is his story for each of us. Still, I will speculate that Jesus told the man about the havoc he had created in his demon-possessed state, and the broken relationships he would need to mend. And I will surmise that Jesus especially shared his love and forgiveness with the man, and that Jesus gave the man his mission in life, explaining that it was now his turn to tell others about the miraculous life-changing relationship with God that all of them could experience, too (even though, as Isaiah had said, "they did not ask for me ... [they] did not seek me.")

So, fine Pastor, how's this relate to me? Here's how: none of us here are as obviously demon-possessed as this man by the lake was centuries ago, but all of us here have at least remnants of the chains from our past holding us back from being God's instruments in today's world.

Let's work through this by looking at our lives through the lens of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. Our Epistle lesson this morning carries a very fully-packed series of images that grow out of the idea that in Paul's time an immature boy (which we will expand in our application to include girls) would have been under the strict rule of a guardian "until the date set by his father" (Gal. 4:2). Until that date they would really have no more rights and privileges than a slave. So Paul says that's how we were, too, when we lived under the Law. We were chained, then, basically kept prisoner, not allowed our freedom, always at the direction of another.

Living under the rule of the Law, in other words, is like being that demon-possessed man who needed to be chained up for everyone's safety, who broke away and preferred living among the dead in the tombs. "Before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed" (Gal. 3:23). "But now that faith has come, we are no longer" chained in captivity to the Law with its impossible demands "for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith." (Gal. 3:25). Now that our faith is that the death and resurrection of Jesus make us right with God, we are free from the impossible demands of the Law, free to be who God wants us to be, free to live how he wants us to live.

When the demon-possessed man was changed by contact with Jesus, he put on clothes and sat at Jesus's feet. Or, as Paul says in Galatians, "as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Putting on clothes, putting on Christ, we're ready to take up our tasks in the world.

The man by the lake is a kind of flesh-and-blood parable for us, who illustrates both Paul's teaching in Galatians and our own lives. His encounter with Jesus prepared him to go back to his house, his home, the town he was from, and tell others all the things that had come to pass, which the Lord had made known unto him. In the same way, we are informed and empowered by continuing conversations with Jesus to move out into the world and do what he needs us to do.

That continuing conversation with Jesus is important, too. I would guess that the man who had been possessed by demons probably thought his conversation was cut short. He was sitting at Jesus's feet, we're told, which was the posture of discipleship. At that time one literally sat at the feet of one's teacher. We don't know how long his instruction went on. It was a little while anyway, in that the swineherds first had to run off shouting their story in town and country; then the townsfolk had to hear the news, probably from several witnesses, process it mentally as something interesting enough to look into, and then they had to gather themselves up and go out to see what had happened. That wouldn't have been an instantaneous series of events. But there's no evidence that it dragged on either.

That makes the healed man's period of discipleship pretty short before the world (in the form of "all the people of the surrounding country") broke in on the scene, asking Jesus to depart. We could wonder at these people who were near witnesses of the miraculous healing of a man whom they all knew to be possessed of demons. Why wouldn't they want such a powerful healer to live among them and work more miracles? Well, they were afraid, we're told.

The people in that surrounding country needed a messenger to tell them they need not be afraid. They needed someone to bring them good tidings of great joy and announce to them that a Savior had been born for them in Bethlehem and was now walking the earth preaching good news to the poor. They were afraid because they realized their sinfulness in the presence of the Holy One of God. They did not know yet that Jesus himself was their path to life. They needed a messenger to bring them that news. And who better than one of their own? Who better than the man who was formerly filled with a legion of demons? That is why Jesus left the man behind with the mission to return home rather than letting him follow along as they went back to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

The man had absorbed enough in his short time with Jesus to be able to take his experience out to his family, friends, neighbors, and eventually to "the whole city" telling them "how much Jesus had done for him" (Luke 8:39). In the same way, really, you and I have absorbed enough from our conversations with Jesus to be able to tell other people how much he has done for us. He has set us on the path. We have direction and purpose in our lives. We have parts to play.

See again how this un-named man's experience is a picture of our own. In various ways and to various depths each of us was at one time chained and kept captive under the Law. All our hearts knew then was the threat of punishment for being broken and sinful people. We lived among the dead without a shred of self-respect to clothe ourselves in. Then Jesus came to us. We were justified by faith. We were baptized and put on Christ. No longer enslaved under the Law, we were adopted as God's true children and entered into the close family relationship he offers us, where we are learning our real places in the world. And at some point we return as free people able to tell the whole city how much Jesus has done for us, each of us in our own particular way, each of us in our own God-powered actions and Spirit-filled words.

When Jesus and the disciples got back they were surrounded by crowds. After Jesus healed some people he called his 12 disciples together and sent them out "to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick" (Luke 9:2). So you see that this action of being discipled and then going out has much precedent: the man who had been possessed by demons, the 12 disciples, all who heard the Great Commission, me, you, all of us.

In our individual conversation with Jesus we learn how and where to go, what to do. We pray with the hymnwriter: "Drive out the doubt that cripples faith; expel our pride and greed that we, from powers that threaten us, may by Your grace, be freed. Then help us, Lord, to greet each day with hearts and wills made new and, when You call us forth to serve, to rise and follow You." (Lutheran Service Book, #541, st. 4,5).

And may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

S.D.G.

Sierra Club One Day Hike - 2013 ... The Hike on 27 April

Sierra Club One Day Hike - 2013 ... The Hike on 27 April

Saturday 27 April 2013 dawned crisp, clear, and cool.

But our day started way before dawn. Earlier in the week, Ann and I drove from home to the starting place for the Sierra Club One Day Hike to check the time estimates from Mapquest and Google Maps. We also wanted to make sure we understood the directions. Ann especially wanted to make sure she would know how to get back home after dropping me off. So on hike day we knew where to go and how long it would take us.

We got up at 1:00. I'd actually slept pretty soundly. And since I had packed my bags on Thursday night, and set my hiking clothes out on the floor of my study, I was dressed and ready to leave the house at 1:15. It took us 45 or 50 minutes to drive to the Thompson's Boathouse parking lot in Georgetown, Washington, DC where people were already gathering. Ann and I said goodbye, and agreed that she would try to meet me at the second checkpoint on the hike. Ann drove home to get some more sleep. I went off to sign in and get my number.

After getting signed in there was a lot of waiting around until all the others showed up and we got our final safety talk from Mike. I sat on the curb and rested, not really understanding why so many others seemed to prefer standing or walking around. Seems to me that the first few miles would provide warm-up enough for anyone's day. The full moon was bright overhead. There was a chill in the air.

Then it was 3:00 and Mike led us out into Georgetown to the start of the canal towpath.

I usually hike alone - and did all my training alone - so it was quite different to be setting off in the dark with about 100 other hikers. Most wore headlamps and we must have been quite the sight. Anyway, as we got going I didn't feel that I was anywhere near my usual pace, but figured things would thin out as the tortises fell back and the hares leapt ahead. Then I thought I could pick up to my usual tempo.

Very soon we got to the C & O Canal itself and Mike sent us on our way. Then before very long I spied the 1 mile marker on the left side of the towpath. I thought I'd be seeing them all as we went by in a crowd, but actually missed seeing many of the markers. Things did thin out before too long, but we weren't by any means hiking alone. We passed under the Beltway and that's when I knew we were out of DC. If there was a sign at the border, I missed it, too.

Then I saw the 10 mile marker! (hadn't seen any others in the dark) I pulled out my watch to see how long it had taken to get there. It was 5:30. The arithmetic was simple: 4 miles an hour. Faster than my usual pace, so between trying not to be run over on the one hand, and trying to stay close to the people in front of me on the other hand, it was clear we were moving at a steady clip. And it was shortly after that point that I noticed that things were really thinning out. I never had the sense that a lot of people were passing me or that I was passing a lot of others. Seemed to me that those numbers evened out, and I was pretty sure that more people were in front of me than behind me. (I did ask twice at aid stations if they could give me a rough estimate of how many people were in front of me. Both times they looked at their clipboards and said, "Oh, about 25 or 30." I don't really know if that was the case or if that's what they tell everyone but the clear leaders. I had thought I was back closer to # 50 or so out of the 95-125 who were said to be starting the 100K.)

The first check-in spot came a couple miles later. The One Day Hike folks had set up tables with Gatorade on a small footbridge over the canal. We got checked off the list and I poured down two cups of Gatorade before heading on up the path. As I understand it, this is really where they get they count of how many hikers they have. I suppose someone could check in at the start, but decide at the last minute not to walk. And someone could show up at 3:05, check in and follow the crowd up the path. But if you're still walking at the 12 mile mark, you've committed to go as far as you can.

The sun had come up enough at that point that nobody had their headlamps on any longer. We passed Great Falls and I saw the trailheads for the Billy Goat Trail. Near those spots the canal was wide and beautiful as the morning mists burned off:

A mile or so before the first full aid station I saw Ann coming down the towpath to greet me. How nice! She had called my cell phone and left me a voicemail somewhere along the way, which I had noticed when I took my phone out to check the time as I left the Old Anglers check in spot. I'd called her right back and she had said she was on her way up from home. When I told her where I was she was surprised, too, at the pace I was keeping up.

I hadn't been sure Ann would get to the aid station before me, but she clearly had. As we walked in from there I enjoyed telling her that I'd seen lots of Mayapples blooming along the way, but that the best sighting so far had been a pair of red trillium that were just a day at most from opening in amongst a Mayapple stand. Very soon the Seneca Creek aid station came into view, and I settled into a chair so I could change my socks and eat some of the fruit they had available. This was our "breakfast" stop, so it included yogurt, fruit, coffee (?!), muffins, bagels, and probably other food. I gulped some down and said goodbye to Ann.

Then I was off again. The next aid station was at Edwards Ferry, only 8 miles away. On foot that's 2 or 2.5 hours. Ann made the drive much more quickly of course. As I was walking along I stopped to take a photo of the 26 mile marker (at 9:51 am), and emailed it right away to my daughter in Iowa.

I hadn't told any of my family that I was going to be walking 62 miles, so I thought maybe seeing mile markers might pique their interest. Okay, so 6 hours and 50 minutes isn't a fast marathon time; but we were walking not running -- and were only a little over 1/3 of the way done for the day.

Coming into the aid stations was always good. Even if the rest was only for a couple minutes, it broke up the day. And provided the chance for a little something different to snack on. I had packed along a "trail mix" that I made up of mixed nuts that Ann had roasted, some raisins, sunflower seeds and M&M candies. I also took along a package of store-brand lemon creme sandwich cookies. Protein, fat, sugar, and salt: the four building blocks of life. The aid stations had oranges and bananas, for example. Good stuff.

At Edwards Ferry Ann heard an older volunteer talking to another walker and understood the volunteer to say that she had walked the towpath 15 times. She also told us that we would probably be running into 50K hikers soon. It's only 4.9 miles from Edwards Ferry to Whites Ferry where the 50K starts, and in order for them to get a full 50 kilometers, they have to walk downriver a bit, make a U-turn, and only then head upriver toward Harpers Ferry. They'd all made the turn by the time I got there.

The Whites Ferry stop was our lunch stop. I stopped briefly, got a custom-made peanut butter sandwich from the support crew, changed my socks again, and shed my down vest. Ann, acting as personal support crew, took the vest and sweaty socks in her car so that I wouldn't have to carry them. Five or so miles after Whites Ferry I snapped a photo of the mile 40 marker as I passed it at a minute or two before 2:00 pm and emailed it to all my kids. The arithmetic says that's a 3.6 mph pace overall, even with the breaks at the aid stations. (Didn't figure that out at the time the way I often figured my pace during practice hikes, but having timed a few individual miles during the day I felt good about my pace.) I seemed to be on target to finish by 10 pm.

On to the Monocacy River stop, 6.4 miles ahead, at the 42 mile marker. This was where Ann and I had visited the canal a few weeks earlier. It's one of the many places where the amazing engineering of the 19th century is still visible. What to do when you're building a canal alongside the Potomac River, and another creek or river joins in from the same side? Well, if you're building the C&O Canal, you build a culvert for the smaller creeks and run them under the canal; or you build an aqueduct for your canal when you come to something the size of the Monocacy River.

I stopped to change socks, get a snack, put a couple quick bandaids on two toes, and talk with Ann. She took a photo of me there at just before 2:45:

There was a volunteer at this stop who asked about the hike and seemed unable to grasp why anyone would actually walk that far. I told him "for the glory" not really knowing what I meant by that. And, no, I'd never done anything like this before. Ann added that I had, of course, done some training hikes. It wasn't until I was a couple miles up the towpath that I thought I could have told him that my training hikes included 5 weekends where I walked 50 K distances by myself with no aid stations, no embroidered patch at the end, no glory.

It was a bit after this station, that there was a secret spot aid station for the hike. It was just a couple people with a cooler of bottled water. I took advantage of the opportunity to soak my bandana and pour a little water over my head cool off a little. It was never really hot during the day, but this was the warmest part of the day and I did need the cooling that provided.

The next aid station was at Point of Rocks, presumably named for some navigation hazard in the river. This was the "dinner" stop for the hike. They were serving hot soup that held no appeal for me at all. But I did order a lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwich, washed down with about a liter of Gatorade.

While I was eating, seated on a small grassy hill, Ann noticed some other folks spraying themselves down with some sort of bug repellant. I hadn't noticed any bugs worth worrying over during my whole walk, so that held no interest for me. I suppose a July or August hike might have called for bug spray.

Another change of socks and I was on my way.

The whole hike was passing fairly quickly. Here's the C&O Canal in typical disrepair -- filled with trees and bushes rather than water -- as it appeared through much of the walk:

With the stops so close together, they seemed to come up quickly. During my training hikes at home, my mind would fill and empty several times over. I'd think about all sorts of things: work situations, writing ideas, birds I was hearing, the cold wind blowing off the Potomac in February and March, how many laps I had done and what my target distance was for he day, and more. On the One Day Hike, I found I was pretty well focused on the moment. How am I feeling? Is my pace good? Can I pick it up a notch? Should I time the next mile? Can I catch that person in front of me?

The Brunswick aid station was 6.6 miles beyond Point of Rocks. Towards the end of that leg, I think it was, the towpath turned into a road or driveway for some large summer camp sort of affair. Ann met me before I got to that part of it, and we walked in together as usual. Somewhere along the last mile before Brunswick I felt a blister pop up on the little toe of my right foot. It was at about the 50 mile mark. I had never done a 50 mile training hike, though I'd thought about it, and the blister just may have been avoided if I had. Or maybe not.

At Brunswick I hobbled into the first aid part of the station, took a seat and un-booted my feet. One of the first aid workers attended to blisters on both feet while Ann was filling my Nalgenes with drink. I took another ibuprofen or two, as I had done about every 4 hours, put on fresh socks and my boots, and stepped very gingerly out of the first aid tent.

It was still light, but late in the day. The next stop was the last one, and sat 7.3 miles ahead. It would take a bit to get there. I've found that whenever I'm hiking or backpacking more than just a couple miles, it's always hard to convince the soles of my feet to get started again, especially after having had my boots off. Usually that settles out after a dozen steps. This time, it took a couple miles.

I fell in with a 50K walker and we talked a bit as we went on. Less than a mile out of Brunswick I stopped at the 55 mile marker to take a photo of it, and told her I had emailed a couple photos to my kids without comments so as to make them curious about what I was doing. She offered to take a picture of me next to the marker, which I thought was nice. 

That was at 7:24 pm. The day was moving on. If I could get my tempo back I had another 2 and a half hours of walking ahead of me to make the 10 pm target (and even if not, there didn't seem to be anything getting in the way of finishing by the midnight cut-off time).

We walked on, and after a couple miles, as I said, my feet started to feel better again. Whether the nerve endings just gave up sending pain signals, or the ibuprofen kicked in, or what, I'm not sure. Anyway, I remarked on it and the other hiker urged me to go on at my own speed. I wished her good hiking and headed off ahead of her (she got to the finish while we were still there, not too far behind me).

Darkness settled in and the few hikers nearby -- mostly 50 K hikers, I think -- turned on their headlamps. They struck me as 50 K walkers because they were in groups of 2 and 4 and chatting. The 100K walkers were pretty much all solo artists by this point, focused, determined, and really not chatting (although I had just talked for 2 miles, hadn't I?).

The full moon hadn't risen yet and I checked my backpack again for the headlamp that I was pretty sure I had left in a pocket of the down vest Ann had taken for me. Yeah, it wasn't in the pack. The plus side of that was that then Ann could use it as she came down from the finish line to walk with me. And that she did. She must have come out about 2 miles from the end point, down the hill through town, across the bridge over the Potomac, down the towpath. It was good, as it always is, to see her.

People had talked about how hard it is to climb the stairs from the towpath to the bridge, and then to walk up the mile-long hill through Harpers Ferry. I didn't find either hard on my legs. Different muscle groups maybe. Or that I had trained well enough. What I would have found hard (without Ann) was convincing myself that I hadn't missed a turn on the walk up through town. The One Day Hike volunteers were there where we left the towpath at the bridge, and in Harpers Ferry at the bottom of the town (in the historic area), pointing the way to go. But blocks and blocks later, with no signs pointing the way, my certainty was wavering. Without my guide at my side I may have faltered. (There's a sermon illustration in there.) Until, eventually and finally, there were volunteers at the spot where we were to cross the road and head into the Bolivar Community Center.

Then it was over. Just before 10:00 pm. Cheers from the volunteers at the finish line as they checked my number off and wrote down the time. A photo taken. A colorful patch given. Some more food. Sitting a spell. And then off to our hotel, where Ann had already checked us in.

It was only in the last couple miles that my legs bothered me at all, and that was a spot behind my knee, not in my muscles. Lots of rest over Sunday, and more ibuprofen cleared that up quickly, too. And by Tuesday my toes and soles were recovered.

Now, a week later, I'm saying things to myself like "Well, if I do it again, I'll make notes along the way while I'm walking. And I'll take photos of the rest stops and volunteers."

But we'll see about that later. Right now I am thinking that since the available spots are so sought after, that the nice thing to do would be to sit back let someone else sign up in the February scramble for spots. Then, just maybe, if there is room and the registration re-opens later, maybe then I might sign up for another round.

Sierra Club One Day Hike - 2013 Training Hikes

Sierra Club One Day Hike - 2013 Training

I first became aware of the Sierra ClubOne Day Hike back in July 2010 when Joan, my supervisor at the time, mentioned it to me and our co-worker Michele. We all agreed that it sounded sort of fun, but that 100 kilometers seemed pretty far. The web site indicated that the 2010 edition had passed, though, so I tucked it away in a back corner of my mind.

I think that I didn't recall it again when the 2011 version rolled around. And then in 2012 I did look into it, only to discover then that they restrict the number of registrants (because of limits set by the National Park Service, as it turns out), and that I had missed the registration deadline. So I tucked it away again.

Then sometime at the end of the year, I think it was, Ann said one day that I really should think about doing the One Day Hike. So I looked at the web site again and saw that registration would open on 1 February, and stay open until they had filled up. Tucked that away and started dreaming and scheming.

This will outline my training schedule for the One Day Hike. I think there were several layers to how I trained. The foundation was that I BELIEVED I could do it, and that I WANTED to do it. Layered on top of that is the fact that, although I work at a computer all day long in my job as a librarian at George Washington's Mount Vernon, I work at a stand up desk; so I'm on my feet all the time. On top of that is the fact that during the work week I don't eat lunch, but instead use the hour to go for a walk and have been doing that for a couple decades, at least. At Mount Vernon I have a 2.4 mile loop from our building to a spot up the paved bikepath that runs along the Parkway.

So all I've got to do, I thought, is add yet another layer on top of that: one that builds up my speed and stamina to the point where I can do 100 K (or about 62.1miles) in a single stretch.

The first of February 2013 arrived, a Friday, and I went to work reminding myself to keep myself free of meetings and so on in the afternoon so that I could log on at the website when registration opened at 4:00 pm. They said that in 2012 the registration filled up in 2 hours, so it wouldn't hurt to be quick on the draw and try to register right at 4:00.

1 February - Got logged in and registered. I was done with the process at 4:17. And lucky for me. They announced later that registration filled up in 28 minutes! Three hundred and fifty spots taken, just like that. That's a lot of eager walkers. If there are any cancellations, the registration will re-open at announced times so that others can vie for those places.

2 February - I had given thought to the particulars of training for such a hike. It seems a good idea to train in conditions similar to the C & O Canal, that is, a packed flat dirt road way. We're fortunate to live pretty much next to the Potomac, south of Washington, DC a little ways. And there's a private road I can use as my own training ground. Well, technically it isn't "private" in that the land is owned by the National Park Service, but it is isolated from public roads so that its only access for vehicles is through private property. This has the great advantages of being away from cars, very similar to the canal towpath, AND being literally out my front door so I don't need to drive there and back.

The Sierra Club sponsors a weekly Saturday training hike but I won't be able to make any of them.

So I drove out the road and clocked it on my odometer, marking each leg of the possible walking route: farm gate to river, that corner out to the turnaround, back along the tree line. Drew myself a crude map so I could walk different legs and add up various mileages.

3 February - First training hike - 5.5 miles.

4 February (Monday) - On my lunch break I did my usual walk of 2.4 miles out and back at the south end of the bike path that runs along the George Washington Parkway, north from Mount Vernon. That will be my pattern for the rest of the training season, unless I'm not at work for some reason. Walking every lunch hour, and using a stand-up desk rather than sitting down in front of my computer, are going to be primary leg-strengtheners I hope.

5-8 February - 2.4 miles each day over the lunch hour.

9 February - 10 miles on the shoreline at home. Went to the REI store near Bailey's Crossroads in Virginia to buy some new shoes for the hike, as my current "best sneakers" were pretty worn out. Came home with a pair of Keen brand boots instead. They seem to fit well, and are pretty light. I'm happy with them.

10 February (Sunday) - Walked 7 miles in the new boots, wearing new Smartwool brand socks.

11 February - 2.4 miles @ lunch

12 February - I had also measured the length of our driveway as a possible alternate training location. It isn't completely flat, but has small hills it. Still, it has some advantages over walking the 3/4 mile to the river at night, not the least of which is not having to walk that far back up the hill at the end of the training walk. The drive is 1/2 mile from the road to our house and then on to the garage over at "the big house." So tonight I walked back and forth on the driveway enough to make 6 miles after supper. It's dark and there isn't anyone around but Ann to see me doing this, which is probably a good thing.

13 February - 2.4 miles @ lunch

14 February - 2.4 miles @ lunch plus 4 miles @ night

15 February - 2.4 miles @ lunch

16 February - 4 miles @ lunch

17 February (Sunday) - 19.6 miles; thought that if I can continue to build my mileage on weekends, then I can focus on finding and maintaining a good pace on my shorter walks; seems like a good idea anyway.

18 February - 2.4 miles @ lunch

19 February - 2.4 @ lunch, plus 6 @ night

20 February - 2.4 @ lunch

21 February - 2.4 @ lunch, 5 @ night

22 February - 2.4 @ lunch

23 February - I decided to count the 2 or 3 miles I walk while picking up litter from the Potomac River shoreline in the Piscataway Creek area as training miles, call them "cross training," if you want because it involves stooping and lifting for a couple hours as well as the walking.

24 February (Sunday) - 20 miles, if I do that twice more then I'm in Harpers Ferry; I thought about the parameters for this One Day Hike: start at 3 a.m. and be done by midnight; that's a limit of 20 hours; so at 60 miles (plus a bit), one has to maintain a 3 mile per hour pace; except that wouldn't allow any time for rest and refueling during the walk, so in reality something faster than 3 mph is called for. Hmmmm.

25-28 February - 2.4 miles each day at lunch

1 March - 2.4 miles @ lunch and 5 @ night

2 March - my 2-3 trash picking miles

3 March (Sunday) - 28.15 miles. As I finished, I thought to myself "hey, that's more than a marathon! This thing just might be possible" I kept up a reasonable 3.4 miles per hour pace the whole time.

4-5 March - 2.4 miles @ lunch each day

6 March - No work because of a huge "snow event" that didn't actually arrive. Walked 4.1 miles at home in the evening.

7 March - 2.4 miles @ lunch

8 March - 2.4 @ lunch and 3 @ night. Had been thinking about this next bit since my long walk last Sunday. Made a couple adjustments and tweaks, and posted today on the ODH Facebook page:

Top 10 Things That Will Probably Be Going Through My Mind as I Finish the 100K O.D.H.

10. I guess "Passing on the left!" is what they say here in western Maryland instead of "Hi, how are you doing?"

9. I was doing okay until my blisters got blisters of their own.

8. How far away is Harpers Ferry in kilometers?

7. No, wait. There are fewer miles. How far is it in miles?

6. Is it "River on the right; canal on the left" or "Canal on the right; river on the left"?

5. I just realized that the towpath may look flat, but since we're going upriver, we've also been walking uphill the whole time.

4. This seemed like such a good idea back in January.

3. What should I play on my iPod when I finish? The 'Rocky' theme or the 'Amen' from Handel's Messiah?

2. Are we there yet?

1. What do you mean April 27th is NEXT Saturday?

Well, I thought it was funny.

9 March - 2 or 3 while picking up trash (cross-training)

10 March (Sunday) - 32.6 miles. When I got home I told Ann, "Now, if I can do that twice, I've got this licked!" But later I thought "Hey, I just walked 50 kilometers!"

11 March - 2.4 @ lunch

12 March - 2.4@ lunch and 5 @ night

13-15 March - 2.4 @ lunch each day

16 March - 32.6 again. And, yes, it takes at least 9 hours.

17 March (Sunday) - zero day because of a family obligation

18 March - 2.4 miles @ lunch

19 March - 2.4 @ lunch and 7 at night on the driveway

20 March - 1 mile at lunch; bought a pair of Superfeet insoles to slip into the new boots, turns out to be a good idea.

21 March - 1 mile at lunch and 6 miles at night; I'm thinking the evening walking is a good idea, too, because several hours of the One Day Hike will be in the dark

22 March - zero day because we were traveling to visit with family in Pennsylvania

23 March - 39.2 miles on a rail trail in Pennsylvania; interesting pressure to get back to my car in time to go out to dinner with friends; couldn't just drop out a lap or two early like I could at home if I was running late; had to keep going at speed in order to get back to where I had started from because that's where the car was; it was also interesting to be back on this trail near where we used to live

24 March (Sunday) - zero day

25-26 March - 2.4 miles @ lunch each day

27 March - 2.4 @ lunch and 8 @ night; trying to build up the night walking in order to put in more after dark hiking and build up my weekly total

28 March - 2.4 @ lunch

29 March - 2.4 @ home

30 March - 40.5 miles; thinking to myself that that's 2/3 of the one Day Hike, which is looking more and more like it'll be real achievable

31 March (Easter Sunday) - 2-3 miles picking up trash from the river bank in the afternoon; it's 4 weeks until the hike; the clock is ticking down.

1-2 April - 2.4 miles @ lunch each day

3 April - 2.4 miles at lunch and 10 miles at home on the drieway after supper

4-5 April - 2.4 miles at lunch each day. On 5 April I posted the following question to the ODH Facebook page. I'd formulated it during my last long training walk, but couldn't nail the answer on my own. Fortunately, Jon came to visit today and was able to snap out the formula needed, and then give me the answer (which I will post before the ODH).

"Given a hypothetical hike of 100 K (or 62.1371 miles) ... there is a point X at which the _number_ of miles traveled equals the _number_ of kilometers left to travel. There is also a point Y at which the _number_ of kilometers traveled equals the _number_ of miles left to go. Points X and Y are not in the same place, neither are they at the mid-point of the hike.

"Question: Where are point X and point Y?"

6 April - 2 miles or so while picking up trash on the shoreline

7 April (Sunday) - 30 miles

8-10 April - at a conference in DC and did walk at lunch, but only 1 or 2 miles each day

11 April - 2.4 @ lunch and 5 @ home

12 April - 2.4 miles @ lunch

13 April - Drove up to the Monocacy Aqueduct on the C & O Canal with Ann and walked 2 or 3 miles along the tow path with her so she could get an idea of what it looks like; Virginia bluebells in bloom; and we saw several birds that she identified for me, including what we identified as a rose-breasted grosbeak

14 April (Sunday) - 2 weeks until the hike- 43 miles; had been hoping to push to 50 but it was just getting too late; I think it was about 8:00 when I came up the hill for supper; a couple weeks past the vernal equinox there is more light longer into the evening, but I do need to remember that I'm working in the morning

15-16 April - 2.4 miles at work each day

17 April - 2.4 miles at work and 7 at night on the driveway; I weighed myself this morning and found that I've lost 10 pounds since I started training at the beginning of February

18-19 April - 2.4 miles at work each day

20 April - 2-3 miles while picking up trash from the riverbank, and then 10 miles at night; the One Day Hike is next Saturday

21 April - 20 miles; marathon runners in training seem to taper off toward race day, but I couldn't ever find any training schedules for 100 K walkers, so I'm making this all up on my own; I'm figuring that 20 isn't too much to do today since my target distance on Saturday is 62.1 miles (which would be something like a marathoner running an 8 mile day); but this will be my last long walk before the One Day Hike

22 April - 2.4 miles @ lunch. Someone posted on the ODH Facebook page about what a good idea it would be to be well-rested when we start the hike. Thinking that made sense, I went to bed at 9:00, hoping to work to earlier bedtimes the rest of the week

23 April - 2.4 miles at lunch and then 6.7 in the evening, taking one last walk down to the river, one last loop on my training route along the Potomac, and one last walk back up the hill at the end; there's supposed to be a notable hill in Harpers Ferry at the end of the One Day Hike, it's been several years since I was there in town, and I do seem to remember a hill of some note - but I had just backpacked down from the Pennsylvania border on the Appalachian Trail when I hiked up the hill and may not be remembering it well. Didn't get to bed till after 10.

24 April - 2.4 miles at work each day. A couple days ago I added up all these training miles. I was surprised at how many miles I had underfoot a this point: just over 575 since 1 February.

25 April - 2.4 miles at lunch time. Got to bed at 8:00 after a spaghetti supper. I'd read somewhere recently that "carbo-loading" the way most casual athletes practice it doesn't really offer the benefits people think it does, but I like spaghetti.

By the way, the answer to this month's puzzler is 38.3237.

In other words, after we walk 38.3237 KILOMETERS on Saturday, there will be 38.3237 MILES left yet to go. This is point Y.

AND after passing the midpoint 50 K mark, we will soon reach the spot where we'll have walked 38.3237 MILES, and find that we only have 38.3237 KILOMETERS left out of the 100 we started with. This is point X.

26 April - 2.4 miles at lunch to end my training. Somewhere during the day I broke my code of silence at work about the hike. I had figured I wouldn't tell anyone until afterward (you know, just in case it didn't turn out as planned). But Amanda asked if I had any plans; and when I said 'going to Harpers Ferry' she wanted to know if I was going to be hiking around there. eventually I told her the whole story. Had Ann's pancakes, real maple syrup, and Greek yogurt topping for supper. Just in case there is anything to the carbo-loading theory, after all. Got to bed close to 7:00 after setting the alarm for 1:00 a.m.

Let's hope that it was all worth it. The weather forecast is very favorable.

Summary of "big" training hikes each week:

Sunday 3 Feb: 5.5 miles

Saturday 9 Feb: 10 miles

Sunday 10 Feb: 7 miles

Sunday 17 Feb: 19.6 miles

Sunday 24 Feb: 20 miles

Sunday 3 Mar: 28.15 miles

Sunday 10 Mar: 32.6 mles

Saturday 16 Mar: 32.6 miles

Saturday 23 Mar: 39.2 miles

Saturday 30 Mar: 40.5 miles

Sunday 7 Apr: 30 miles

Sunday 14 Apr: 43 miles

Sunday 21 Apr: 20 miles

Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers

Taken from Paris and Environs with Routes from London to Paris; Handbook for Travellers by Karl Baedecker. With 14 maps and 41 plans. Seventeenth revised edition. Leipzig: Karl Baedecker, publisher, 1910. (Click to enlarge.)

Musees du Louvre - First Floor

Taken from Paris and Environs with Routes from London to Paris; Handbook for Travellers by Karl Baedecker. With 14 maps and 41 plans. Seventeenth revised edition. Leipzig: Karl Baedecker, publisher, 1910. (Click to enlarge.)

Musees du Louvre - Ground Floor

Taken from Paris and Environs with Routes from London to Paris; Handbook for Travellers by Karl Baedecker. With 14 maps and 41 plans. Seventeenth revised edition. Leipzig: Karl Baedecker, publisher, 1910. (Click to enlarge.)

Baedeker Map of the Louvre

Taken from Paris and Environs with Routes from London to Paris; Handbook for Travellers by Karl Baedecker. With 14 maps and 41 plans. Seventeenth revised edition. Leipzig: Karl Baedecker, publisher, 1910. (Click to enlarge.)

This is My Father's World

"This is My Father's World"
Hymn text by Maltbie D. Babcock
Published 1901; set to music 1915.


1. This is my Father's world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.

2. This is my Father's world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
he shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.

3. This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

"Trees Affect Our Minds"

"Most of the forest's molecules bypass my sense of smell and dissolve directly into my blood, entering my body and mind below the level of consciousness. The effects of our chemical interpenetrations with plant aromas are largely unstudied. Western science hasn't stooped to take seriously the possibility that the forest, or the lack of it, might be part of our being. Yet forest lovers know very well that trees affect our minds. The Japanese have named this knowledge and turned it into a practice, shinrin-yoku, or bathing in forest air. It seems that participation in the [forest's] community of information may bring us a measure of well-being at the wet chemical core of ourselves." David George Haskell. The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. (NY : Viking, 2012), p. 187.

Thomas Merton's Hermitage

My god-daughter just posted a Thomas Merton quote on Facebook and it led me to Google "merton hermitage" -- actually, I googled "merton germitage" but the software is so blazingly brilliant that it knew what I meant.

Anyway, I just watched a 10 minute You-Tube video of Merton's hermitage there on the grounds of his monastery in Kentucky. Very interesting.

And NOT at all what I have been imagining for years.

Have you seen any pictures of it? It's at least 4 times larger than I had pictured it in my head. And I'd always pictured it as wooded right up to his doorstep; whereas there are mowed lawns around it, at least when the video was taken.

I'm not a HUGE Merton disciple. I've just liked a lot of what I have read by him. Just not sure at the moment how this makes me feel. Like he is more approachable maybe? Or that his example is more follow-able? Although I could never quite put together just how it was he was in a "silent" order yet had visitors, wrote so much (a huge personal correspondence, too), and traveled across the globe.

Then again I'm a Lutheran. Maybe I just don't understand.

2012 Reading List

Books read in the year just completed:

Blanchard, Dennis R. Three Hundred Zeroes: Lessons of the Heart on the Appalachian Trail. Sarasota, FL: s.n., 2010.

McKinley, Robin. The Blue Sword. New York: Ace Books, 1987.

Mains, David and Karen. Tales of the Kingdom. Elgin, IL: David C. Cook, 1983.

Mains, David and Karen. Tales of the Resistance. Elgin, IL: David C. Cook, 1986.

Martin, James. The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life. NY: HarperOne, 2010.

Colegate, Isabel. A Pelican in the Wilderness: Hermits, Solitaries, and Recluses. Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 2002.

Greenberg, Douglas and Stanley N. Katz, eds. The Life of Learning: the Charles Homer Haskins Lectures of the American Council of Learned Societies. NY: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Cameron, Julia. Faith and Will: Weathering the Storms of our Spiritual Lives. NY: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2009.

Cain, Susan. Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. NY: Crown Pubishing, 2012.

Davis, Zach. Appalachian Trials. S.l.: s.n., 2012.

Maier, Paul L. A Skeleton in God's Closet: A Novel. Nashville: West Bow Press, 2004.

Harding, Walter. The Days of Henry Thoreau: A Biography. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Hall, Adrienne. A Journey North: One Woman's Story of Hiking the Appalachian Trail. Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club Books, 2000.

Scott Jane. Botany in the Field: An Introduction to Plant Communities for the Amateur Naturalist. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Edited and with an afterword by Jeffrey S. Cramer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Holy Bible. Revised English Bible with Apocrypha. NY: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The Appalachian Trail: Celebrating America's Hiking Trail. NY: Rizzoli International, 2012.

Nicols, Henry J. The Heart of a Viking and the Faith of a Child: Lessons Learned Hiking the Appalachian Trail. S.l.: s.n., 2012.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit; or There and Back Again. Revised ed. NY: Ballantine Books, 1982.