These Are a Few of My Favorite Things [Mountain Edition]

When you live in the mountains, everyone assumes you are mountainous. That is, you hike (unlike those "flat-landers"), you know how to evade bears, you buy/eat local, and that you don't have any trouble with losing power for extended periods of time. While these things may or may not be true about me, I am doing my best to blend in with the locals.

Some of my favorite things:
1. Carrying a backpack wherever I go and not getting weird looks.
2. Stocking that backpack with lots of neat stuff such as snacks, water, my camera, a flashlight, work supplies and even a first aid kit.
3. Walking down the mountain to work.
4. The creek outside my window.
5. Afternoon rain showers.
6. Learning about random things one can only learn about at conferences---e.g.- The decision making process for the 2013 hymnal and hymnody in general (Speaker: Mary Louis Bringle; Info: http://presbyterianhymnal.org/)

Not so favorite things:
1. Lugging a backpack around.
2. Working long hours.
3. Walking back up the mountain to get home from work.
4. Extreme temperature fluctuations.
5. Getting caught outside in thunderstorms and braving the wind, rain, and falling limbs to make it inside.
6. Sitting (or standing) through upwards of 4 lectures a day and dealing with sound/technical problems as I pretend to know what I am doing.

All in all, it's not so bad.

Lake Susan and The Left Bank 

 

Porch of the South Carolina Home 

Wildflowers 

"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:1-2 (ESV)