the art of waterfalls and car washes.

8/19- silver falls

What can I say? I definitely wasn't expecting a six-hour hike but it was a beautiful experience. It's so nice to be able to grab a bunch of free spirits and just go. Just go anywhere, and laugh and shout and sing and be silent. I learned a few small things not only about others but also about myself. Nature is so amazing. It can do that to you. 

The forest was so vibrant green, like someone took a photo of the scenery with their iPhone and decided to put the saturation on full total blast. The moss covering the trees, hugging the trees, the tiny little fern leaves, everything. It was like Narnia and a fairytale and it was like everything all in one. I've never seen mossy trees so tall and rolling hills so vast like the ones I've seen here in Oregon. It really is breathtaking and it makes you want to just dive in and melt into the nature slowly. To soak it all in and experience all of it, not leaving a single drop behind. I try to breathe everything all in and look at everything with my eyes before I forget it all, and truly, it's all about the experience and the feeling and the air against your skin in the moment. Not the future, or the past. 

There were ten waterfalls in total and we dragged our weary legs to stand under each one. (Some of them were dried up because it's summertime, but that didn't matter.) I called every single one of them bonita, not only because I'm going to Spain soon and I have to start using some spanish but because that was the only word I could use to describe it all.

It was simply bonita.

There was this one waterfall, I forgot what it was called, that had this huge cave behind it that you could sit in and watch it all fall right in front of you. Me and my friends went there twice--once heading down the trail and once heading back to the parking lot--and it felt so cool and cozy in there. The stone on the floor was damp from the precipitation all around and the water kept pouring and pouring in gallons. It was so much bigger to see it in person and it made me feel so small compared to the nature and my surroundings. God really doesn't hold back when He's creating things, and the fact that this is a fallen world and it still looks this beautiful makes you think in awe about how much thought He put into things. Everything is so perfect, perfectly placed in His design and thought out with His mind and fingers personally for all of us. And He says without words, through the waterfall, I made this for you. Do you love it? I made it just for you.

The water falls from the heavens, and we are at peace. As long as the water falls, we can lift our heads up in wonder and security and freedom. Giving in to the rain.

There was one specific waterfall I loved that was high above a deep lake/river (I really can't tell the difference between the two) where people were diving in and swimming with the crawdads and water bugs. Once you climbed up, there was a ledge behind the waterfall that you could sit on that drops right down into the abyss, a bunch of feet under. We were on our fifth hour of hiking and I was really feeling it, so once we got to that specific waterfall I let my body loose and slumped over the ledge. The wind was blowing the cold water towards me and it felt so refreshing, I didn't want to lift my head. I did anyway, and all around was blue blue sky. Blue sky and water sprinkling on my face. The trees far away but swaying, like everything was in a fishbowl and set in a circle around me. It was a perfect place to just be, until we picked back up again.

8/22- just your average Monday

Peaceful is the best word for this day. D-School is coming to an end, and all our classes are ending so that we can prepare to leave the country. It's an odd silence, an ominous wait for what's about to come. The impact, the hit, the culture shock. It'll all hit me when I reach it. My friend came back from the hospital, and it felt so surreal to have her back. Good and peaceful and surreal, all blended into one. Days pass to days onto days and now we're here. A bunch of young adults fundraising to make a leap across the world.

We did a little bit of ministering in Downtown Salem on our day off, which mostly included just putting up fundraising flyers on poles and praying for a lady that my roommate was hoping to see. 

Other than that, I'm trying to not let my mind go crazy with all that's around me and behind me and before me, but whatever it is, I hope it's good. The future is too far to grasp so I'm going to reach for what's in front of me, and that's the life I'm living right now. The community around me, the bonds I'm making, and the bonds that might break as time goes. And, of course, the bonds that stay. The stability, the peace of mind--the non-thinking mind is what I live for. The mind that soaks in its surroundings and says, Ah, yes, I'm here. The mind that reads and ponders philosophy and laughs and breathes in nature and connects with people and thinks until two in the morning. That's the mind that I love, and that I'm holding onto in the present.

8/23- OR Car Wash

We're christians, so of course, we did a one-day fundraiser car wash--as christians do. So far funds have been going really great and we're reaching our goal, and we might go even further past that with the other fundraising plans we have for this coming weekend. For now, I'm content with the hectic three hours we had.

It was genuinely a really nice way to bless others--scrubbing car tires in my friend's untranslatable dog t-shirt while Say It Ain't So by Weezer (of course it's Weezer) plays in the background from the car wash building's stereo. The sky was blue and beautiful, minus the minor forest fire a few minutes away. 

After getting sprayed by a hose and washing two cars I decided to be a sign holder. It was hands-down the best decision I ever made. I stood there and screamed and jumped and waved my sign in the air and got so many weird looks from so many different people. I really wasn't afraid of anything at that moment. It's weird how that works. My other classmate was by my side and we screamed and shouted for a good couple of hours. People hid their faces and some people screamed back and smiled. People are really so different and you can tell whether they are happy or not. Whether they choose to look at life and see it for what it is or to be miserable. There's so much misery where misery hides but freedom is always choosable. The air, the sidewalk, the sky. Being able to jump on the side of the road because you have legs and scream because you have a voice. It's so beautiful and so simple and so many people forget that. The things that we are blessed with; we take it all for granted. And that is why people may look at you with disgust if you're screaming at the top of your lungs at an intersection. 

And that is also why you find people--your people--who will see you even while you're going insane. And they go insane with you, and you go, and go, and go. Out of breath and in love with the world.