If Francis of Assisi and Counselor Troi had a kid...

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Children are either closer to the truth because they see things in much simpler terms than adult, or they have much better imaginations.  Perhaps the answer is both, and their imaginations are more true than we give imagination credit for. 

I used to have a very over-active imagination.  The whole world around me was sentient.  I could talk with trees, animals, and dead people.  The past and future were somehow melded into this one instant called the present.  Objects could retain the memories of things they had witnessed, and if we listened hard enough, they constantly whispered their stories.  I was Francis of Assisi and Counselor Troi (Star Trek empath character) all rolled into one.   I couldn’t really explain it, but I just knew it had to be true.  I really wanted to do a global social experiment where we didn’t have ANY Christian ANYWHERE praise God for 5 minutes – all at the same time – 5 minutes of global non-worship.  Why?  Well, I really wanted to hear the very rocks cry out in praise.  Yeah, it’s in the Bible.  I don’t take the Bible completely literally, but that one verse (Luke 19:40) seemed incredibly plausible in my mind.  In fact, anywhere the Bible speaks of the trees clapping their hands, or the voice of God being in the whisper of a wind, or the rocks crying out in praise, my brain-as-a-child said, “Yes, that’s right.  That’s what trees and wind and rocks do.” 

As a kid, I could easily wrap my brain around miracles.  When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it didn’t seem that difficult in my mind.  After all, death was just a change in life.  Disease was just a black splot or a shadow within the body, so it could be easily sponged away or removed.  I always wanted my superpower to be the ability to remove pain.  It just made sense.  (I also wanted to be able to turn invisible, but that’s just because invisibility is cool.)

Then, as I got older… and didn’t see very many miracles and science laughed at my anthropomorphist approach to nature (yes, apparently you must be classified as “native” or “indigenous” in order to NOT be seen as silly for such things – it’s sort of patronizing and insulting to the native or indigenous, don’t you think?).  And so, I let go of such things.  My world got more orderly, more categorized, more diagnosed.  Definitely less magical.  Less imaginative.

But, as of very recently, there has been another switch.  I’m getting too old to continue being so… adult.  I miss my imaginations.  I miss being one with Nature, and feeling swept away in the majesty of gratitude for the One who made her.  I miss witnessing the clapping of the trees’ hands.  I miss listening to streams and winds.  I miss being overcome with unashamed joyful abandon at the feel of mud between toes.  I’ve gotten away from experiencing the deep and wide love of God through what He’s given us in nature.  And it’s time to get back.

So, this next six months is to do just that.  And not just with Nature, but with the people I’ll meet as well.  As I mentioned, I’m not just part Francis of Assisi.  I’m also part Counselor Troi.  If humans were created for community – with a desire to connect and communicate with fellow humans – then we all have the ability to do so.  It’s only the walls we put up  around our hearts that breakdown that connection (which aren’t real, by the way – we just act like they are, and by golly, they seem very real indeed then).  And we wonder why we feel so alone and isolated.  The one thing we imagine – the walls – is the very thing we believe, as adults, is real... so community breaks down. 

What if, on the Trail, I could imagine taking down my own walls and inviting others to take down theirs.  I imagine the Trail is a place where people go to find something – community, solitude, healing, perhaps the next chapter in life.  What if I could sense that in people and help in whatever small way I could to give that to them?  After all, I’ve received a lot of training as an adult – life coaching, motivational interviewing, basic first aid, emergency response – what if I could combine all the knowledge of an adult with the wisdom of a child’s imaginations?  What would that look like?  What could happen on the Trail?  What could happen if EVERY one did that – no matter what trail they were on?