The Encounter

I love skiing through the forest in back of my house. It makes me feel alive. I find any excuse to be out there, especially on days as nice as these. Today after Moonbeam fell asleep, I took off with skis in my arms to hike back to the snowmobile trail. As I am skiing, frustrations fall off of me like the snow melting around me. The house I can't seem to keep up to my standards, the feeling like I am always barely treading water between work, home, home school, children, friends, etc..
Wonderful things have happened out there in the forest for me. Long meaningful hikes with my husband. We've had fun family hikes with my kids backpacking Moonbeam or pulling Karsten by sled. Our beloved German Shepherd, now deceased once ran through those woods, now buried there. Not long ago, a good friend was skiing with me back there. Out of the blue she started crying. She said that she knew she was missing something. She wanted the kind of relationship that I have with God. We prayed together out there for the Holy Spirit to do His work in her. Even part of my placenta from my miscarriage is buried out there next to our canine guardian, now returned to the earth. The forest is a peaceful place for me.
Deer stand in droves back there. I see scores of them as I ski. Many times they don't even bother running away. They're used to seeing me and know I don't pose them any threat. Some of them loiter around our yard even when the kids are out playing. When I don't see any deer, I suspect that something is off. That's when I get concerned.
Today like all days, I was challenging myself between skiing and hiking out there. Before I got my skis on, I practiced my quick draw (just in case). I grimaced at how painfully slow I was. On I went skiing peacefully. The snow pack had become slushy and it was melting all around me making boots almost impossible to maneuver in the hard packed trail now softening. After a few miles of hiking and skiing I headed back. As I got closer to my familiar path back home I started hearing things. First it was a bird flying over head. Then I noticed that I wasn't seeing any deer. I started to get edgy. I looked around several times. Just as I was about to continue on I heard a sound and saw fast moving brush. I went for my gun....... A second passed as I tried to distinguish with my eyes what the commotion was that I was seeing. My heart was racing. I looked in disgust as I saw a tree had been unearthed from the snow that had bound it. Well so much for that adventure. It was just an attacking, er, tree.