14 July 2011

I had a dream last night! To explain how monumental this simple statement actually is, I have to give you some back-story on my dream life... Just about a year ago (literally, this time last June/July), I had a series of really terrible dreams. For a few (nearly consecutive) nights, I had dream after dream of things being lost, stolen, destroyed etc. for example, in one my car was stolen; in another I went through all the agonies of childbirth, and then the child was stolen; and the creepiest one by far was when I dreamt that someone had snuck into my room during the night, and shaven off half my head of hair. At the time, I didn’t really know how to process these dreams, and so my response was (as it often has been) to just shut down and ignore them. I literally haven’t dreamt since then – a full year! A few nights ago, I had another dream in a similar vein – I dreamt that all the things I’d brought with me to North Carolina were stolen. Not a happy first-dream-in-a-year! But last night I had a GOOD DREAM! Here in Moravian Falls, this “thin place”, God came into my dreams! It was pretty simple and very short – I saw an enormous, beautiful, sturdy old tree, planted in the middle of a lake. Everything was hazy and misty, with soft twilight lighting (very Lord of the Rings!). A huge silver ladle appeared, and scooped up some of the silvery water, and brought it over for me to drink. I stood there taking in long, refreshing draughts of that beautiful water. Yay God! So I woke up feeling super refreshed and peaceful :o)

After packing, getting breakfast, packing lunches, and thoroughly cleaning out the lodge, we gathered on the front porch to bless the place. It was a great time of praying together. Then we all bundled off into the vans, and set off on the day’s adventure. We drove into the Blue Ridge Mountains, and stopped at an apple tree on a hill – which is where David proposed to MK about 2 years ago. After lunch together, we got out our poetry books, and read out loud the poems we had written in the van on the way to Apple Hill a few days before. Here’s mine (eeek):

Becoming

I have always been saddened by trees cut down

Lives cut short; their browning leaves

The cracking, crashing of the bones of the earth

But somehow, this pile of logs radiates hope

Belligerently humble, they wait in expectation

Of greater things to come 

Being here, this home away from home

I find things familiarly strange, strangely familiar

And – still deep in shadow – hope for the new begins to grow

There are four red leaves in a sea of green

A few pink flowers; the seasons’ change

Somewhere a family pulls chairs up to a new table

After hearing everyone’s poems (they were amazing!), we got back into the vans and set off to a waterfall. It is SO beautiful here, it reminds me quite a bit of Hogsback. We walked down through the woods to the river, and found a few natural slides that some people went whizzing down. We kept migrating further and further up the falls, clambering over rocks, finding pathways alongside the river. The water was icy, so I didn’t get too far into it! But I got to take some great pictures of the stunning surroundings. By the time we’d worked our way back to the vans, we were exhausted but very happy! We stopped at Chick Fill-A for supper on our way home. It has been such an unbelievable week of blessing and being spoilt by God and our amazing staff. I am so very grateful!