An Eye on the Prize

"Whose dumb idea was this anyway?" I asked.
"Pretty sure it was yours," says my friend Carol, "Don't you remember?"
"Yah, well it seemed like a good idea at the time."

That was the conversation we had on Sunday afternoon while perched on the mountainside 3 kilometres above the little town of Yale in the Fraser Canyon. My legs were screaming, my lungs were gasping for oxygen but I was determined to get to the end of this trail. Why? Because there was a stupid piece of tupperware hidden in a cave, just waiting for me to find it!

I know, I know... I'm obsessed with geo-caching. Yes, I can say it out loud and yes, Terry, I know that makes me a geek. But we all need something we're passionate about right? This is my thing. I love the challenge of finding something that's been hidden in the middle of acres & acres of forest... testing my observation skills and getting me to places I would have never considered before. And when I am soaked from the rain, splattered in mud and covered in a stinging nettle rash I keep my eye on the prize. It is what keeps me going when it seems too hard and I want to give up.


"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Sometimes the life lessons are just so obvious. I love it when God does that.

In the Beginning God Created....

Eleah and I went geocaching last Saturday in Derby Reach Park. We were making our way down to the bottom of a ravine just as the sun was starting to set. That's when I noticed these 'strange creatures' coming up all over the place and I couldn't help but take a picture or two! They were just so cute! They looked like a bunch of little green people coming up from the ground.

It was right then that I wished that I could have been there when God was creating the earth so I could ask him all the questions that I have. Why did he decide to make just these ferns come up like this?
(Someone, somewhere started calling them fiddleheads.) Was it just for me, just so I could enjoy this tiny moment in my life? He could have chose to make every plant the same. Every bird look like a robin. Every animal look like a cow.
He could have made the whole earth look like the prairies (I'm not saying that's a bad thing! lol) and we would have never known the difference.

Instead he made the world with mind-blowing variety, eco-systems so diverse that most of the time it just leaves me speechless and full of thankfulness. And questions.

The Parable of Glass Beach

Our first stop after we got to Texada was to find a geocache called "Glass Beach." After reading the cache page we learned that this site, on the northern tip of the island, was previously an old dump site used by the residents of Texada for many generations. The area has now been reclaimed by nature but since then the most wonderful little thing has happened.

I guess, many, many years ago, there were a lot of glass items dumped here. Old pop & beer bottles, noxema jars and even china was deposited here when it was no longer useful. Now add to this the continuous action of the waves and you can imagine what has happened. The entire beach is strewn with brilliantly coloured "pebbles." Beer bottle amber, noxema jar brilliant blue, 7up green... they are all there. Over the years the waves have worn them smooth, no jagged edges or sharp points anymore. It is really something beautiful to see.

What I love most about this story, though, is how some of the islanders have discovered these "pebbles" and seen the potential of it. They scour Glass Beach for the right shapes, sizes and colours (apparently blue is the most sought after) and turn them into works of art. What was once discarded and worthless is now searched out and of value.

I loved going to Glass Beach. Probably because it was an unexpected surprise that gave me a lot to think about. I love my life but it has not turned out exactly as I imagined it would and there are times when I've felt like I've been hit like that glass, tumbling in the waves, again and again and again. What was ugly can become beautiful, what was useless can be made useful, what was sharp and hurtful can become smooth and soothing, what was once considered worthless becomes worthy. We were standing in the middle of a wonderful, moving object lesson.

No wonder Jesus taught in parables.

If you'd like to see some beautiful examples of beach glass art click here.

Trees, Trails and Tupperware

Let me paint you a picture....


It's pouring rain and the trail in the dripping forest is muddy and slippery. It smells like pinetrees and wet earth. The creek is running fast and getting higher by the minute. Good thing her boots are Gortex. Now the rain is coming down harder and she slips climbing out of the creek, her jeans soaked to the knees. She can barely see because her glasses are all fogged up and covered in rain drops. She climbs the hill, slipping and grabbing roots to keep her balance, her fingernails clawing into the hillside to get a better grip. She's almost there. What did the paper say? Inside? Under? Suddenly she notices that something doesn't look quite right. The leaves and branches under that stump look too perfect, laid out in too precise a pattern. She moves the leaves and there it is! She has done it!


That "she" is me and that was me this morning searching for a geocache. The whole time, while I'm pushing my wet hair out of my eyes, I'm thinking, "what a stupid hobby," but then, there it is, in my hands, the elusive hide and what is the thought going through my mind at that moment? "I wonder where the next one is hidden." I can't help it, I just love it! I love what one cacher wrote online after they had had a particular difficult time finding a cache. He said, "All this to find hidden tupperware." That's probably the most eloquent thing I've ever read about geocaching and I can totally relate.


Why do we do it? I know I've always been a curious person and I love puzzles. I love a mystery and trying to solve it. And I love being outside in nature. I am so glad that God created us this way giving us that desire that makes us want to explore and learn new things. It just makes life so much fun. Aren't you glad that He gave us this whole amazing planet to explore?


There's only one thing that scares me about that.... do you have any idea how many places on this earth a person could hide a piece of tupperware?

26 Years

It's my anniversary today. Twenty-six years ago I was a new bride. Sometimes it feels like we've been transported in time, like in a Star Trek episode. Beam me to 2007 Scotty.

Tony and I celebrate our anniversary the same way every year. We go away to explore some remote place in British Columbia (that's me, hiking in the rain, up Stoyoma Mountain this past weekend). I have many friends (OK most of my friends) who don't quite understand the whole "sleep-in-tent-4x4ing-hiking-fishing" thing, but for us it's the perfect way to celebrate who we are and who we've become. Twenty-six years ago I was a very fresh faced teenager whose most rugged camping experience was staying at Manning Park with her family. He was 22 and grew up in a family where words like venison, thirty-odd-six and ford fender were used in every day dinner conversation.

How we ever got together still remains a mystery.

Looking back at these past years, I realize that we both were willing to embrace each others' passions in life, we were both willing to learn new things and we were both willing to give the other the space to grow . We are so not the people we were that day 26 years ago.

So today I thank God for that man he brought into my life in 1977. I thank Him for the strength and courage he gave us when we needed it.

Because August 30th was when the true adventure began.

"Thanks God... I Found it!"

Have you ever thought that there are just too many wonderful things in this world for you to absorb? That God made this world with so many hidden gems & secrets just for you to find?

I have. I think that all the time, every day.

Yesterday Tony and I went geo-caching in a little known park north of Campbell Valley Park and the moment we stepped off the road onto the trail I was in awe of the beauty around me. The trees were dripping with bright green moss and huge ferns grew all around. It was like stepping onto a green painter's palette. I never knew this little park existed and I've lived in Langley for almost 40 years! Can you imagine what else is out there for us to find?


Like I said, we were geo-caching - one the hottest new hobbies to take hold of people these days. In a nutshell this is what you do.... you use your GPS unit to locate a box with specific co-ordinates. The box (or geo-cache) has been hidden somewhere on the planet. They are hidden everywhere, (that's me pulling a cache out of a tree) with little trinkets and a logbook inside. There are thousands just in the lower mainland. It's so addictive, the moment you say the words, "found it!!" you are ready to find the next one.

Why is it that we don't treat God's hidden wonders the same way? I truly believe that God made all this just for our enjoyment. And what do we do? We race by, going 120 on the freeway because we have to "get there." One of the greatest lessons I learned from my parents was that the holiday, the adventure, your day-to-day life, begins the moment you leave the driveway, not when you arrive at your destination. God must truly puzzle over the way we race around His planet, trying to keep up, missing everything.


Thank you God for Your creation. Please help me appreciate what a gift it truly is.