On Friday morning I sat on a plane that flew so close to the top of Mt. Rainier that it felt as if I could reach out and touch it. The sun was shining off the snow that makes its home on the peaks. The sky was so clear and blue it seemed as if we were all suspended in an amazing piece of art which, of course, we were. It was one of those moments in which you have the intense realization that you are a part of something very large, something full of beauty, something beyond comprehension…..something sacred.

As my son and I looked out the window at this amazing sight, I turned to him with a glint of tears in my eyes and said:"That's something that can get inside of you and not let go." He knew what I meant and gave me a smile and a squeeze. It will now be his privilege, when the clouds lift in Seattle, to see mountains with regularity as he begins his first year of college in this amazing city, this beautiful landscape. In addition to the lakes and water that have shaped him, he will now have the opportunity to be held and changed by the peaks and summits of mountains.

Each  of us carries with us the landscape to which we were born. The trees and plants we knew as children travel someplace just below the surface of our skin. The DNA passed on to us by our ancestors is mixed with the soil, water, air, and scenery they called home. As we grow and travel to other places we either find home in the soil and sights we experience or we know they are not the place for us and we move on. And believe I have met people who are still searching for that place.

It is my hope, my prayer, that our son learns to look out at the power and beauty of the mountains that now surround him and find an extension of someplace already deep within. A place that brings peace and stability. A place that helps him hone further the person he is becoming. A place of calm and a new way of defining home. While I always want him to have the lakes and prairies, the city and view of the Mississippi flowing through his veins, I also want him to find the awe and mystery of what it means to look into the distance and see that he is surrounded by these summits that are ancient, strong, larger than life itself.

The scriptures are filled with references to mountains. The psalms, in particular, sing the praises and beauty for how the Holy is known by those in the presence of mountains. "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains."(Psalm 36) "On the holy mountain stands the city God created."(Psalm 87) The ancients also believed God lived on the mountain." In days to come the mountain of God's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, shall be raised above the hills."(Isaiah 2:2)

I am more of the mind and heart that God lives in all places. It is when we develop our sacred eyes to see that Presence that we have the encounter that brings us to the place we will call Home. And so today, with my feet firmly planted again on Minnesota soil, I look out my window and see the last day of summer unfolding. As the trees begin to evolve into their golden colors and the air is turning cooler, I am comforted by what I know. But my heart is also holding the memory of the mountain covered with snow and all the smaller mountains that ring the horizon of Seattle hoping they continue to hold and inspire the adventure of this dear one of mine.