My Woods

I wake up on a breezy spring morning. The sky is a beautiful soft blanket of blue and the clouds are shy and puffy. The warm sun shines its brilliant yellow onto my face. There is no roof, ceiling, or blinds in my room around me to cover up the beauty and excitement of each new day. Today’s chapter is unwritten. It is whatever I want to make it. In what direction will I go today?
A ferocious lion of gold curls and a faded red collar bumps up against my leg and growls to be let outside. I follow her out the door. My barefoot feet skip through tangly knee-high weeds and grass. I strum my Alvarez and hair like honey dances with the wind around me. An orchestra of sweet harmony begins as I step into the welcoming forest I know so well.
All of a sudden a stabbing sound of doubt, despair, and confusion, interrupts my dance. This is something have never felt before. Beloved woods push me forward to the sound. I try to struggle back. A clearing lies ahead, though ironic darkness is all I can see. When I step into the clearing I see a crowd of confused people standing in the middle. They are string at the only two paths that lead out and all at once I cannot tell where came from. And a lump sculptures into the back of my throat and I feel like a lonely cry echoing throughout the pit of my heart. Why is this happening? Why would You let this happen?
I then turn my attention to the paths. I notice the first path is very wide as to lead many people down it. A frightening skeleton-like tree stands beside the road, its eyes filled with evil. Its mouth is lurching at the crowd before me, its razor sharp teeth grinding this way and that.
Abruptly the ground beneath me seems to shift and the devilish trees begin to growl their hungry growl. Then the crowd around me begins to move and shift also and their confused expressions start to look mushy to me. Now all I can see is zombies, zombies who want to walk that path- who want to be lead by that path. I scream, I try to grab at the people- to change their minds but they go. They go and the tree swallows them until I can’t see them anymore. And then I get a new feeling. A feeling of need, I need that pathway. I need go forward. But I fight, I struggle. I know deep within- that something about this is wrong. And it takes control. I push the thought out of my mind. The trees growl again. I can tell they are angry.
I fall backwards in fear and something soft catches me. It is the soil beneath me. The ground is warm, and I recognize it the moment I land. It is the narrow path, my path. I run faster and faster to my forest, my protector. And the faster I run back to it, the more it pulls me back in. Deeper and deeper, father and farther I am carried in the arms of the wood until I am in the center. And it is just the brilliant wood and I. And it is all I see. All I think about. And the beautiful music begins again.

Life is about taking courageous steps forward little by little. Sometimes I feel as though faith envelops me. As though nothing can stop God’s plan for me from happening because it is all I want and nothing can stop that team. Nothing can break through that seam. But when I look away from truth, from love, it is easy to see darkness.
Faith is like the sun, rising and setting. When the darkness of night comes faith is like the times when the truth is covered. Just like the dark hides the sun. But its still here, and it shows just like the moon is the sun’s reflection. So the sun is still there, sometimes it’s just covered. Instead of choosing to follow that path of doubt I turn away to be on the run with God.