Climbing

It has been few days since I last posted, I needed a bit of extra time. I was given a prophetic dream on Tuesday night and a portion of the dream was me visiting and sleeping over at a large house that is not mine and the house was under construction. I’d rather not discuss the rest of the dream. Whenever I dream of houses, I know big changes are about to occur in my life or the changes are currently occurring. Whenever God closes a door in my life it can be a struggle while waiting for the next door or window to open. I struggle with change.  I think that is why God has made my teaching career nothing but continual changes to help me in the area of change. I know whenever I face adversity it always leaves me stronger and closer to understanding more of God. Though the week was a bit of a challenge for me emotionally it was also filled with blessings at work and home. On Friday the 13th I went camping with my friends in devil’s lake with the Chicago Mountaineering Club and we rock climbed on Saturday. My first experience bouldering (climbing without ropes) in Devil’s Lake left me feeling afraid and like a failure. This experience was the opposite. When we arrived, it was already late, and we had to set up in the dark. I was able set up my tent with a small amount of light. I felt new security in myself. We met some cool folks by the large campfire and watched the twinkling stars with fullest harvest micro-moon I have ever seen.  SO bright, I was able to get a clear picture on my camera. I’ll post all the pics at the end of this post.  In the morning I woke early and did some yoga in my tent, very peaceful. At about mid-morning w,e broke off into groups based on where the leads were taking us to climb. We went with the older folks to the Valentine route. We had to take a few miles hike to get to the site which was so beautiful. It was cool to learn how to set anchors and how the guidebooks are used to find the routes. One lead took the front and back pages off his book, laminated them and then got the whole book set on a spiral ring. I thought that was a great idea for preserving the book. When it came time to climbing, I was a bit nervous but after my first wall, I felt so accomplished and filled with peace. , I climbed and belayed five walls and felt like a champion. The section we climbed in had shorter walls and nice low grades, perfect for me!! It was also perfect climbing weather, warm but cool. This outdoor climbing trip left me feeling successful and free. I finally felt like all the months of God pushing me to do something that feared me was him preparing me to fall in love with climbing under the right conditions. I needed this experience to see rock climbing differently. Now when I go to the climbing gym, I have more purpose, I want to climb outside. I am not as afraid as I once was. I also realized I’m not afraid of heights I am afraid of edges. Now today I rest and lesson plan! Happy Sunday Funday, climb on.

Love April