2 October Ecstatic Friday

Today, I toast the "saunterers" of life... those people who stroll, dosey-doe and amble through this season of harvest. I read recently that John Muir hated the word "hike."

He said, "I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' (To the Holy Land.) And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."

I woke up this morning in my own mountain tabernacle. Hope you, too, are close to nature and can take a stroll to enjoy her good tidings!