4Ü #273
What mountains do when no one is looking
12 April 2007
- WASSUP - A short week
- INSIGHT OUT - What mountains do when no one is looking
- OUTSIGHT IN - Lighten up
- SEE YA SUNDAY - "Take this job and love it"
- LAST WORD - What you see is what you get
WASSUP - A short week
I guess at this time in the week you are thinking like me, how do you fit five days work into four?
Can't be done
But have fun trying
Andrew
INSIGHT OUT - What mountains do when no one is looking
Rees / Dart - day three
Same socks new day
Clouds wrapped the mountains in mystery
If my memory is right, I was on porridge duty
The fine art of mixing glue without letting it stick
Somewhat successful
but not according to the one who cleaned the pot
Conversations with strangers thawed
The law of six degrees separation tested and proven
People who know someone you know who knows you
In my case it was one degree
Approached by a young woman, twenty something
"Are you Andrew who writes 4U?"
A subscriber!
Without words we both knew
We shared a journey much bigger than the mountains that dwarfed us
Other conversations emerged
Interesting what other people's perceptions of you are
Remember day one?
The race to the first hut?
Other groups had their story of what they saw that day
Of our team it was thought
Merchant bankers on a male bonding expedition
Weather closing in
We didn't carry waterproof gear just for the fun of it
So off on a day tramp, up the Cascades to the Dart Glacier
With only one pack with the days rations between us
It felt like we'd been set free
Free to walk
Free to savour the sights, sounds and tastes of the day
The colour of grey schist changed to a metallic green
Silver streams were lined with a carpet of green moss
Free to put the world right
If only they would listen
The chatter and laughter soon turned to silence
A silence that we would all come to anticipate each day as we entered into a sacred space
It was like walking through the wardrobe into the land of Narnia
A world never seen before
Rock cairns led the way
Up the valley carved by glaciation over thousands of years
High above but within touching distance
Glaciers suspended in mid air about to cascade to the valley below
but the mountains were unwilling to release their hold
A battle of gravity
I would stand watching and waiting
"They can't hold on much longer"
But some things even the mountains do in privacy
When no one is looking
Reaching the head of the Dart
The glacier shrouded in clouds
The rain fell with the feel of ice
The climb and promised view
would have to wait for another day
The hut that evening seemed different
A familiarity
As wet boots lined the deck
Wet socks hung on a line above a pot bellied stove
Familiar sounds of Swiss German and gas stoves igniting
Welcome home
OUTSIGHT IN - Lighten up
Lesson for the day:
When you are not carrying a heavy load on your back it's amazing how much more you see
SEE YA SUNDAY - "Take this job and love it"
8.30 & 10.30
I'm delighted to announce that this week we are starting a new teaching series on Sunday Mornings - "Thank God it's Monday". This series will explore the meaning and significance of work.
- week one: Take this job and love it! (calling)
- week two: Where you are there you are (location)
- week three: Prophets for profit (productivity)
- week four : The work of rest (re creation)
Sunday evening service this week 7.00 with Matt
Can't wait ... see ya Sunday
Thanks for this time to chat.
Andrew
St Columba
Where Life and Faith Meet
andrew.norton@stcolumba.org.nz
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LAST WORD - What you see is what you get
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
William Blake