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?
