The day after Hurricane Michael rambled through our town like a bulldozer, we were still in Troy, Alabama. Bay county was locked down, only emergency vehicles were allowed in and out for several days.
As nerve wracking and surreal as it was, we decided to make the best of it. We headed north to a state park near Birmingham to go hiking.
Let’s just say we meandered up there. We stopped to meet friends for a quick lunch before we entered the park. Once in, we proceeded to jump out of the car and take turns racing down the side of road as a police sign diligently measured, and then shouted out, our speed on the screen. 🏃♀️ 🏃♂️ 🏃♀️ 🏃♂️
Why? 🤷♀️
I don’t know. I guess that’s the kind of silly stuff you do to amuse and distract yourself from reality, after a storm crushes your city, and you can’t go home to inspect the damage yet.
It was actually a lot of fun! After the competition, we proceeded to a park office to get a map and requested recommendations for the best hike to a beautiful overlook.
On the way up the mountain we played, chatted, stopped, and took pictures. We were in no hurry. Then we received two shocking phone calls. 😮
One call from my daughter’s best friend, where she told her she was getting married…tomorrow. (A response to a devastating hurricane.).
The other was a bit more devastating. Our best friends had gone by our home, boarded up broken windows, and cautiously entered to view the damage. My friend, had somehow gotten ahold of a cellphone with service (which was rare), and was calling to let me know that the roof had been ripped off my daughter’s bedroom. 😞
As we processed the new information, and imagined what our home looked like minus the roof, we continued hiking. By now it was late afternoon.
We finally arrived at the pinnacle. It was truly breathtaking! As we stood at the top admiring the multicolored fall foliage, other hikers stopped, chatted, shared our amazing view, then headed back down. 🧡 🍁 🍂
My kids were like, “We’d better get going too Mom. It’s getting late we need to descend the mountain before sunset.” “Okay,” I replied, “I just have to quickly record a Facebook Live video to share this pretty view from our overlook, at Oak Mountain State Park.
These were my famous last words…😳
As we scurried down the mountain, the shadows began to fall, it proceeded to become dusk, then moments later it was completely dark. We were hiking down the steep, rocky path, by the dim light of our phones.
Needless to say, we got lost and had to call a ranger. After we described our location over the phone to the first ranger, he told us, “Keep going you are almost out.” We felt much relief and confidently kept hiking.
We continued on and came to a small creek. None of us remembered crossing a creek before. Hum??? We took a few more steps and saw the back of a huge sign. It was facing from the direction in which we had just come. It loudly proclaimed: Back Country, Experienced Backpackers Only! 🚫🚫‼️
Now we had the chilling confirmation. We were officially lost! 😬
This time my daughter assertively grabbed her phone and called the ranger station again to try to explain our location, describing the sign post we had just read. Unfortunately, it became apparent that it would be necessary for the second ranger to come rescue us and lead us out of the wilderness.
Thank God for the iPhone location finder! 💙🙏
The ranger instructed us to stay put. Then came the scary part. We could hear coyotes howling close by. In the dim light of our cellphones I could see the two guys lock eyes at the sound of their eerie screams. I knew at this point we really weren’t safe! 😩
We stood huddled in a little circle, our backs mostly turned toward the middle. My daughter stayed on the line with the ranger. With our ‘location’ on he was able to find us pretty quickly.
He was a nice guy, young, and funny. He assured us we weren’t the only ones, and began to tell us stories of other hikers lost in the park, as he quickly guided us out.
In all honestly, we weren’t too far off track, but in the dark, and in the woods, I’m sure we wouldn’t have been able to find our way out.
Do these words resonate in your soul as I record them? Sometimes life is sort of like that. 🤔
We are on a path that the Lord laid out for our life, but we get a little distracted, and lose sight of what is important.
Sometimes we literally can’t see the forrest for the trees. We look around us and see chaos, anger, pain, and uncertainty. Then fear creeps into our hearts. It haunts our souls.
That’s how I feel these days….😲
2020 has been anything but peaceful, positive, and filled with purpose.
So, what can we do? Well I guess we can start by calling the ‘Ranger’, calling out to our Heavenly Father seeking peace for our broken souls. Next, we can go back to what we know never fails….Love. ❤️
Somehow, someway, anger, hurt, division, and strife, has drifted into many of our hearts over the past six months.
It doesn’t matter if it started with debate over the virus, lockdowns, and masks, or division over social issues, describing how people should feel, respond, and attempt to live together in unity.
With the upcoming election, politics became king. Suddenly, we could no longer disagree on policy and candidates, now we were expected to hate the opposition.
Instead of looking for similarities and celebrating differences, we started calling everybody out on their differences, and viewing our fellow man as the enemy.
But in our heart of hearts we know we were created for more than shouting out our opinions, to anyone who will listen, on social media, and viciously attacking our neighbor for their dissimilar ideas.
It is okay to try to find our way in this somewhat confusing world. It is understandable when we exit the path, by choice or by mistake. It is not even wrong to get lost, when you are living life on the edge, and seeking adventure.
Just remember to always return to what we know we can depend on:
Love Never Fails! ❤️
Taking Back Happy 