A dear friend recently spoke a gentle prophesy over me with these words.”I believe God is moving you to your next adventure…. I feel like God has ya’ll on the tundra again and there is something just over the horizon.”
She was alluding to a mutual experience that we had many years ago. My husband and I had gone on a gold prospecting trip. We joined a group of about 75 others who camped in ‘hooches’ on the barren land of the tundra outside of Nome, Alaska.
We knew nobody else when we signed on for this adventure and we discovered, while learning the art of gold panning, dredging and sluicing, that looking for gold is hard work. The camp had All Terrain Vehicles available for the more adventuresome campers to use to travel through the wilderness lands and beaches. These were ‘one-person quads’ that barely fit a second rider. We decided to check one out and soon found that going off by ourselves over remote trails surrounded by rich beauty and life was preferable to the social atmosphere of camp and processed foods served in the cafe three times a day.
It was on one of our investigative rides with a crude map and hand-held GPS, that we came across another pair of duos on ATV’s doing the precise same thing; looking for an abandoned camp with the promise of unfound gold. We met at a tiny crossroad that was nothing more than a scratch in the trail. None of us had met previously but we were all on the same mission. We decided to join up and meander across the tundra, off trail, to try to locate the camp.
It was a risky thing. We had no real map, only a general idea where the thing was or if it even existed. Some how, the three men in the party had heard of this place. I was strictly along for the ride and I was already feeling kind of grumpy about the rough accommodations. We ran across a mud marooned quad buried up to its axles in the marsh. Some unfortunate and ill-prepared rider had traveled the same way. We were on the right path. We saw a pair of muddy footprints leading off to the west. While the men in our group pulled the ATV out of the mud, I got off our ATV and walked a little bit. My rear was in pain bumping over the rough tundra on the back of an unfriendly seat. I began hiking over the land in the general direction the men had said to travel, following the footprints.
The travel by ATV was so slow-going that I was eventually a good distance in front. Climbing over the next hill I saw cabins clustered together and smoke coming from one of the buildings… I shouted and whooped and hollered that we had found it!! I could hardly believe it. I had very little faith in my husband’s plan and was only partly sold on it when two other couples confirmed the existence of this place.
We wound up moving from the other camp to this one for a week of the most pleasant celebration, eating our own cooking and enjoying the most beautiful of nature along a meandering river.
I spent a week getting over myself and my expectations and then another week leaning into enjoying my husband and friends and the incredible opportunity the trip afforded.
We picked up giant salmon in our hands from the river waters. We sifted through dirt to get a cup of rubies. We found little bits of gold in our pans and sluice boxes. We rode madly over the beach, racing with the ocean waves. We rode into Nome and shopped at the most curious of shops full of products from Alaska as well as from Russia across the channel. We met and talked to the local Nome dwellers and learned about the land.
The little lessons I learned were powerful truths that I carry to this day; Trust being the biggest hurdle and richest gift I have ever dealt with. Riding on the back of a little uncomfortable ATV, having no control over direction or speed, holding on for dear life and letting go of fear and worry was an empowering experience for me. I wanted to cry and scream and jump off all at the same time. At the end of those rides, I fell more deeply in love with the man I married because I trusted him and God absolutely. It was a wrestling match in my soul; fear and trust in the ring in a fight to the death.
Those memories on the tundra are what come to mind when I hear the words of my friend. She was a stranger when we met at that crossroad in the middle of the rough tundra. She has become one of my dearest and closest friends. And OH! the other adventures we have had since then!
There is always something over the next horizon! I have just had to let go of my death grip on the known and my little book of expectations. I have had to tuck in my pouting lower lip and put away my complaints and sorrows. I have had to learn to live in this moment with what I’ve been given instead of trying to prepare for that moment over there. This has perhaps been the more difficult thing. My traveling here and there is always about the ‘getting there’ instead of the journey.
My prayer today is, “Lord! Please help me to walk this path, one foot in front of the other, delighting in this spot where I place my foot. Please hold my trembling hand and still my restless heart as we go. Open my eyes to behold Your wonder and all that you have placed around me. Let me not worry about tomorrow more than I ought, but live fully in today. Amen!”