Going Home

On Sunday BL and I made our first of hopefully many summer trips out to Great Falls. It was absolutely gorgeous out, the first true shorts weather of the season. If you’ve never been to the falls and you live in the DC area, you don’t know what you’re missing. A season pass is only 20 bucks, $5 for a day (I think). There are plenty of hiking trails meandering between the Potomac and the C&O Canal as it makes its way toward the city along the MD/VA border. There are some more treacherous, rocky trails for the slightly more daring, or the tow path for the everyday walk or jog. There’s even a newly built working canal boat and a few locks for the history buff. People watching opportunities abound on a beautiful spring day. You’re guaranteed to see the spectrum from tiny tots bundled and strapped to daddy’s chest to grandma and grandpa out for an afternoon stroll. We came upon at least one second date…that’s our guess judging by the conversation…and quite a few dog lovers. As we strolled and chatted we were absolutely blown away by the thought that the first time either of us had been there had been together…10 years ago! TEN YEARS? Granted, we were only in middle school at the time, but wow! It’s hard to believe we’ve even known each other that long.

The thing that struck me about the falls 10 years ago is still the very same thing that strikes me today. I didn’t have words for it then, and I only have a fleeting comprehension of it now but the best words I can muster to describe the beauty, the power, the smell, the overwhelming calming effect of watching the waters of the river rush by me are these: God lives here. I’m not a conventionally religious person, but I shudder at the cliché, I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual. It’s hard for me to describe what I believe about the great unknown besides to say that there is some amorphous, incomprehensible, ineffable something out there that is bigger than I. However, when I come upon a place like this, there’s an overwhelming awe. Not an awe that strikes me back as in the sight of a massive building or amazing machine, but an awe that draws me in…calms me…grounds me…allows me to feel like and be me again. I feel the same way floating on my back in the Atlantic, watching a thunderstorm roll in, or gazing upon the rolling mountains of the Allegheny Plateau. I feel at home. I feel wrapped in the arms of some greater existence.

I need these experiences that I can’t quite explain, I can’t quite describe. I long for them. It’s been a long winter, my life is totally and completely up in the air right now. This weekend, though, this one short day strolling around the falls, has grounded me again. I’m ready again to go along for this crazy ride until the next time I get the chance to go home…