walking on lakes

the song "beautiful love" by the afters takes me back to december and where i was. i wrote this some time ago.

12.26.06

"Sorry if you've been trying to contact me for the past five days, but I've been spending part of Christmas vacation up at a place called Seely Lake in Montana with my family.

It's a gorgeous place. The entire lake was frozen over a good couple feet through and snow had covered it entirely. The air was clean, and the times were good.

I lost many things up there. I lost my selfishness, or most of it, at least. I lost my sense of isolation.

I gained a newfound respect for nature and God's creation, a new, healthier way of eating, a better way to breathe, and an experience that I will never forget.

I walked on the lake.

It's true. In fact, I did this just yesterday. The lake is about a mile or so across. I walked to the opposite shore in back in an hour. The skies were gray and cloudy, but walking over, it was the most serene and peaceful atmosphere. Not to mention surreal; I was walking on water.

I reached the middle of the lake on the first trip and just stopped. I took a look around me. I can see why they call Montana the Big Sky Country; the sky seemed more open and wide for miles around. It was breathtaking.

The fact that I was walking across a lake never ceased to cross my mind and stop the words in my mouth. I loved it.

And I discovered something. Whether it was my respect for nature, a newfound inner peace, or something greater, I don't know. But I know for a fact that something has opened inside of me, and I think it's my soul.

I can't describe it to you. All I can say was that it shook me; it seemed something impossible, momentous. It's unforgettable. To some, like the rest of my cousins and maybe my brother who crossed the lake on skates or skis, it was just tiring or scary, since we found a few cracks in the ice along the way. But walking just made it all the more impacting on my mind and soul.

It was an experience quite unlike getting two flat tires in one day, or talking to a hero via email, or even going to a moving concert that has the whole place screaming God's name in praise. This, I realized...

...was what peace felt like."

-d