Breathtaking Fear

I really love the adventure of living here.

Today I found the most breathtaking place in our area. It took about an hour to hike up the side of a mesa, but I found it. A wide meadow. A quiet pond. Tall pines. Huge cedars. Gigantic boulders. Towering cliffs. Mountain lion dining area. All in about an area the size of a football field.

Yeah, it had to be home to at least one mountain lion. I had my 2 dogs with me, as always. They chased a few animals that were just out of my sight. One was large enough to make that scary “there’s-something-big-crashing-through-the-brush” sound.

Shortly after that I found where a few boulders created a small overhang. My dogs were hesitant to go in (I should have taken that as a warning). I peeked in and saw a fairly fresh leg bone of something and some mountain lion scat (I saw tons of bear scat on the way up there, and this was totally different). The hair stood stiff on the back of my neck.

Being in the midst of God’s beautiful, frightening, adventurous creation was almost as cool as when when my boys both tackle me at the same time.

That’s the great stuff of life. That’s the stuff that lets you know you’re really alive.