Fellow travelers,

A good poem opens a door to another world, inviting us to enter. Wendell Berry’s poem, The Peace of Wild Things, does that for me.  It opens a door to a world I look forward to spending some time in over the course of these summer months.  Wild places have (almost) always had a calming effect on me.  I say “almost” because black bear encounters have reminded me in not so gentle ways that I was the interloper in their territory.  Sharing trails with grizzlies along the Toklat River in Alaska and realizing I was no longer at the top of the food chain has a way of concentrating the mind!  So the experience of entering wild places may be calming or it may be exhilarating, but it has always been for me freeing.

When a group of us from Peace head for Holden at the end of July, I hope that among our experiences will be this entry into the peace of wild things. Which is not to say that entering wilderness—particularly at a place like Holden—is a benign experience.  The wilderness seems so accessible there—only steps away from the Jacuzzi and snack bar—and it is.  But risk and danger as well as peace attend the wilderness experience, and those who do not discern when they have crossed the boundary between Village and Wilderness can get themselves into trouble fairly quickly.  The point is this: it is proper to prepare before entering wild places and this preparation can extend and deepen the sense of freedom one ultimately experiences.

Teaching my youngest two children how to enter into and appreciate wild places is high on my list of paternal duties.  Spiritual formation has many dimensions.  Learning to experience wilderness without being intimidated by it, allowing oneself to be tutored by wild places and wild beings, are important steps in spiritual formation.  The Scriptures teach us that wilderness has been one of God’s preferred settings for tutoring his people through the ages.  Israel spent 40 years in God’s “outward bound” program trying to learn how to trust God and live in community with each other.  The prophets’ message was honed in the wilderness, John the Baptist found his voice there, and Jesus began his ministry with a wilderness sojourn that shaped and prepared him for what was to come.

Like many things in life, after we’ve acquired a level of experience from the school of “hard knocks,” we can forget how long it took us or how hard-won that knowledge truly is.  Passing on a love of something therefore requires patience, and a willingness to enter into the experience as if for the first time. The natural curiosity and intuitive nature of kids makes this process exciting and fun and, because of the nature of nature…precarious.  Another poet, Michael Meade, has said: Every path a child takes looks precarious to the parent’s eye.  And it is, and “precarious” is an old word which means “full of prayers.” For this and for many other reasons, I hope and I expect that our sojourn at Holden will be full of prayers.

Wherever these summer months find you, I hope that you will spend time in the places and spaces which bring you peace and freedom and refreshment.

Blessings,

Pastor Erik