'Discovery'

After sitting for a couple of minutes, strenuously searching the trenches of my mind for a clever title for this posting, I came to the conclusion that sometimes it's best to just go. So, I will begin writing without a "clever" (attempted cleverness that is) title steering my words down some sort of path to profound revelation and/or personal epiphany.

Since about my sophomore year in college (university), something I've become fond of doing is taking walks, and for some of you less fortunate victims back home, many of these walks have been shared, and therefore labeled, 'walk n' talks'. Maybe I'm inclined to this activity because a part of me so badly wants to seem/feel sophisticated and deep, and/or genuinely wants to have time to 'figure out the universe' and appreciate what it is I see, hear, smell and touch (very irregularly taste...). Whatever my motivations, secret agendas, etc., I do believe that there is something very intriguing about 'discovery'. Whether it's discovering a new place (which I suppose can be better labeled as 'becoming aware of a given location that has previously been discovered by someone long ago'), discovering something interesting about someone else (again could be relabeled as becoming aware of...) in the context of the 'walk and talk', and/or finally discovering a new idea or having a profound, sometimes multiple thought(s)... (do I really need to do the 'becoming aware' parentheses?). I've found that in the last three years or so, all of the above types of 'discoveries' have been made on these walks that I've gone on; often times, leaving lasting impressions on my mindset and total being (whatever 'total being' means... ha).

Being in Scotland and removed from my normal grouping of 'walk 'n talk' victi... I mean participants, I've done a considerable amount of individual walking about. This, more quiet atmosphere has enabled me to really 'discover' lots of new places and natural things that I was previously unaware of (*note: being in a foreign country significantly improves one's chances of 'discovering' new things... especially in the geographical and topographical sense). With this in mind I recently had the opportunity to climb up Arthur's Seat, a famous landform I've mentioned in previous postings that I can see from my bedroom window. To say the least, the climb wasn't easy, but not too grueling, the temperature and wind factor wasn't perfect but definitely not terrible, and the view was, well, beyond belief and perhaps one of the most amazing vantage points I've ever been privileged to see from. If you have not yet seen the pictures that I took from my journey to and atop Arthur's Seat, I would highly recommend that you browse through them - facebook.com/wshine427, finding them in the Scotland 3 photo album. These pictures will probably best provide the testimony to the sorts of physical and conceptual 'discoveries' that I made; I feel verbally describing the event would only do it injustice. I can say that God has, in so many places and ways, given our 'discovery' driven minds countless places and points of access to/into things much bigger (literally and figuratively) and much more fantastic than ourselves. For this I'm thankful.

When I come back home, I'm not gonna pretend to know more, be wiser, or more well rounded as a result of having the opportunity to 'discover' a new place(s) and 'learn/discover new things about myself' (-insert vomiting sound here-). I will however, come back home, having had an excellent opportunity to pause in life, and simply, discover a genuine appreciation for the gift of 'Discovery'.

hmm a title is born...

p.s. - thank you to all of you who have survived it through going on 'walk 'n talks' with me, I truly have appreciated every single one, and look forward to future 'discovery' sessions with you.

Bon Voyage Mes Decouvreus,

- Will