My Real Life

Ah…

For days, it rained, and today the sun came out.

Okay, it actually came out yesterday, but everything was still muddy and wet.

Today?

Today the world was ready for us.

So, after a doctor appointment and running some errands, the monkeys and I hit the nearest hiking trail.

(If you could pretend to not notice that Baby Monkey has been wearing this pajama shirt for three solid days, I would really appreciate it.  It’s Spring Break…we’ve been vegging like crazy people.  No worries…the kid had a bath and a fresh change of clothes after dinner tonight.)

The monkeys and I really love hiking in the good weather. 

As we walk, we talk about anything and everything.

Sometimes, we stray from the path, on purpose, and take the harder path through the forest…just because.

I’m going to post a picture here, in a second, that doesn’t quite do this spot in the forest justice, but I’ve never once passed through his particular spot without being struck by it.

This spot is at the top of a small incline, and on the other side, you start back down, so it’s a bit of a hilltop.

It’s almost like a clearing in the forest, and there used to be one tree, right in the middle, that had a strange, crooked, lone branch coming out from it.

It just has a very lonely feel to it.

For some reason, since the very first time I stumbled across it, I have always equated it with the Garden of Gethsemane.

Now, I’m not a particularly religious person, but I am a minister’s daughter and I pretty much know every story in the Bible by heart, having heard them during the countless hours I’ve spent in church over the course of my life.

For those not in the know, the Garden of Gethsemane is the place where Jesus and his disciples went to pray the night before Judas betrayed him, and it is the spot where Judas did the betrayal.

I’ve always imagined Jesus as feeling so lonely.

So sad, and so alone.

And then, his friend comes and betrays him, and the loneliness multiplies.

That’s the feeling that I get when I hit this spot in the forest.

I have no idea why. 

Maybe it’s a place where many people have to come to be alone and be sad and it still lingers in the air.

Maybe I’m just projecting, but I’m not lonely and I’m not sad, so I doubt that’s it.

Maybe my author’s mind is attributing a feeling to a place that doesn’t exist.

Maybe I should write a story about it.

Maybe I will.

I digress, egregiously…

It was a great hike.

Baby Monkey is many months older than the last time we hiked together, and he was so much more into it than he was last year.

He climbed on rocks with the big kids, like a champ.

He kept up with us every step of the way.

He led us, some of the way.

It was the first of many hikes this season, and I can’t wait for the next one!

(Just a reminder…Please go to Amazon and download (for free!) my book excerpt, read and review.)