ok, I have a lot to talk about... but first: my walking stick

I love to go for long walks in the woods near my house:


here is my walking stick... I fashioned it from a fallen branch last week...

I found it very helpful... like last Saturday when I lost the trail because of all the leaves and had to plod though the woods and use my excellent built in compass and sence of direction (no kidding) I discovered that I had to carefully work my way down a steep ravive that was covered in leaves... it was my walking stick that stabilized me through that ordeal...

like I said, I had lost the trail and knew that eventually the ridge I was walking would end up in another part of the "village" I live in and there would be no way out, other than walking through someone's back yard, then I remembered a creek that ran under the road on community property... to get to this creek and back home (with out backtracking- - I HATE BACKTRACKING), I had to go down the hill... I was grateful for my walking stick, it saved the day!

Life is like a hike, there are times when we have to stop, evaluate if we are going in the right direction, look at the obstacles, and sometimes the best thing we can do is to turn around... even if it means going in a direction that we believe is right, yet has some very unknown aspects to it... sometimes we need to turn around and make a new path... and when the path is slippery, it is good to have a walking stick to give us stability... when our legs are tired, it is good to be able to use the walking stick to help us up a hill, or slow us down when we are going too fast down a ravine... Scripture is a great walking stick... but a walking stick will not help if you don't use it... neither will Scripture...

Long live walking sticks!