Today was the perfect summer day... smell of fresh cut grass, the warm wind pushing the clouds across the sky. If the day was any more humid it would rain torrents.

I drove through the beautiful countryside, windows down, absorbing the beauty of the green fields and the snowcapped mountains in the distance. I let the wind blow through my hair and felt it purging my soul as well. Worries melted away, life became simple again. The road, the wind, the journey.

The steep, shady, mossy valleys that I work and live in make me feel claustrophobic sometimes. The air feels too stale. Mold grows on the walls. Squirrels can't even eek out a living because every nut they bury suddenly sprouts into a tree. I long for the open air of a mountain top or a large windswept expanse. I love the freshness of being surrounded, engulfed by something bigger and incredibly more vast than me. It puts things in perspective. I see God and I see myself in comparison.