Finding God Climbing the Stairway to Heaven

 I find God in Nature. Much of my childhood involved camping and hiking. In high school and college I got interested in Indians' reverence for the Great Spirit and his natural creation. I brought my kids up to respect the outdoors. In fact, my younger daughter and her husband moved from Louisville to the Colorado Rockies by choice, where they hike and sightsee many weekends.

A Search for What Is Real: Finding Faith, by Brian D. McLaren, expresses beautifully why I seek and find my higher power in nature. "...that running water and singing birds can become God's voice, speaking to me of joy and comfort...."

Which reminds me of my favorite song of all time, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin: "...And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter."

But I digress. Back to McLaren. "That is why I make it a habit to go into the woods and to walk by the streams.... I find myself saying, 'God, what an amazing artist, engineer, scientist, inventor, manager, and risk taker you are...' One of the essential experiences of mysticism is an awareness of a glory hidden in all creation, in every tree and blade of grass and speck of dust and grain of sand. That experience, I think, is an experience of the creator, coming through the medium of God's creation."

Some sort of an "experience of the creator" is an essential part of healing our addictions. See Steps 2 and 3 if you need some help getting started. And again from Stairway to Heaven: "And if you listen very hard the tune will come to you at last."

 Finding the Creator in His Creation

Kathy and I went camping last weekend in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky. After 35 years of living in Louisville, we finally got over there to explore. We haven't gotten to camp enough during this, our first year of both of us being retired. We had a good time. We saw elk, bison, and deer. Kathy saw a fox and bald eagle.

Better yet, I got to see God in his creation. Nature is important to me and my faith.

"...running water and singing birds can become God's voice, speaking to me of joy and comfort; that thunderheads can shake me and battle me and charge me with the power and majesty of God. That is why I make it a habit to go into the woods and to walk by the streams." (Brian D. McLaren, A Search for What Is Real, https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Faith-Search-What-Real/dp/031027267X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482512494&sr=1-1&keywords=a+search+for+what+is+real+mclaren&linkCode=sl1&tag=mclaren0f-20&linkId=eeb7c29aa85e4afb22bf4c2310956349)

I moved to Idaho years ago so that I could live close to the mountains and forests. My daughter moved to Colorado for the same reason. She hikes in the Rockies many weekends throughout the year.

"The Lakota was a true naturist -- lover of Nature. He loved the earth and all things of the earth, the attachment growing with age. The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing....

"Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real and active principle. For the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them and so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue." (Chief Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux)

"And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forest will echo with laughter."  ("Stairway to Heaven," Led Zeppelin)