The woods invite me into themselves so that I might be drawn out of myself. And if I have never engaged in such an exchange, I will find myself a man so full of myself that I am nothing but myself. And that is a terribly small thing to be.

The mistake was to think that the hawks were flying under their own power, when in fact they were catching the updrafts created by nature’s power. Therefore, to truly rise is not a product of our own brute force wherein we create the power. Rather, it is a seasoned wisdom that knows where to find the power.

Out in nature each day starts by being soft, quiet in a sacred sort of way, gentle in the act of stepping into the awaiting day, and seemingly reflective in it all. And in wondering why God shaped it that way, I have come to realize that to start the day in any other way is not to start the day.

Pessimism is not part of my nature. Rather, it’s part of what happens to me when I reject God’s nature.

I am selfish by habit, but sacrificial by nature. Therefore, I’d be wise to develop the habit of following my nature.

I must look at the 'nature' of God, not the 'nature' of the challenge. For the former means everything and the latter means nothing.

From somewhere off in the distance, a loon called into the ascending night. And drifting across the lake’s sleepy surface, it’s call lent both a stirring mystery and a gentle magic to the lake and the now drowsy forest that surrounded it. And I remember thinking that no song I have ever heard in the entirety of my life ever conveyed so much with so little.

Overhead there lies an uninterrupted ocean of delicate blue whose expanses are freely coursed by majestic white behemoths quietly sailing to distant horizons. And under our feet there are listless expanses of emerald-green brilliantly splashed by the golden pigment of a thousand dandelions. And to stand in unbridled awe of both is to miss neither, for to miss such things is to miss life itself.

It is not summer surrendering. Rather it is summer coming to the grand culmination that it has spent months vigorously preparing for. For fall is the glory of summer in splendid display. Such are the celebrations that God creates, for the intense majesty of His irrepressible character can create nothing less.