I haven’t written a blog in a while, and it may seem like I have gone missing. It’s Spring and here I am, though, ready to blog on.
I spent a short time this month underground in Virginia. If you have never been caving, put it on your bucket list. It is definitely worth it.
My daughters and I went to Luray Caverns to walk through the dark and damp caves.
Now, you would think that walking through the deep caverns of Luray, with miles of mountain above us, would be creepy.
It’s not.
While touring the caverns, we had a tour guide who mumbled through his dialogue. We couldn’t understand him, so we hung to the back of the tour group.
At one point, we had lingered away from the group for too long, and the lights in the section of the cave went off. For the first second or two, my two daughters and I were terrified and in complete darkness. Then, a feeling of awe over took the three of us. We stood there, hearing the dripping of the water off the stone ceilings as our thoughts echoed through the cavern chambers. Fear, awe, and then peace swept over us until we heard voices from a second tour group coming towards us. We didn’t stand there long, but we did stand there long enough to feel that calm.
The glare of our cellphones lit the path towards our group, and we far too quickly heard the drone of the tour guide and the chatter of the group.
We left the caverns feeling refreshed and invigorated.
Was it the peace of being enwrapped in rock, away from the constant drone of man-made noises, or was it the fact that there is so much more to life than what we see before us on the surface?
After our tour, we began our five-hour drive home. Instead of driving straight home, we left the road we were on to drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway because the tour had ignited in us a need for adventure.
We stopped at the lookouts along the mountain road and climbed on giant boulders. We hiked along a trail in search of a waterfall a trail map mentioned.
We wanted to see what else the world was hiding.
Did we find it?
Yes!
The world looks different when you face your fear of heights, climb to the top of a boulder, and look out over the mountain’s edge. The world looks different when you stop the car and roll down all the windows to hear the water flow from the melting snow off the side of a mountain. The world looks different when while hiking up a steep incline, a stranger stops and offers you his walking stick, and you, in turn, offer it to the next stranger you see at the top of the trail.
The world is an amazing place when you look beyond…above…underneath…
