I am the happiest when I am picking up rocks, getting dirty in a river or creek, making mud pies after the rain has passed through.  I wasn’t allowed to do this as a child.  Cleanliness was a virtue, right up there with Godliness.  Now as a middle aged woman I get to revert to playing as much as possible.  Very few people know this side of me.  This is my private and goofy time to interact with Mother Earth.  My best friend took this photo on hiking trip last year up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Graveyard Fields.  The water was cold but so spectacularly clear.  I saw a rock, heard it calling for me to fetch it in the middle of the river, and I had to go after it.  Almost lost my balance in the slippery algae-filled stones but I laughed all the way back to the edge.The presence of something greater than me lives in these mountains and beacons for me to join the mysteries.  I cannot teach this to others, or encourage them to follow me into the depth of rivers fishing out whatever is enticing me.  All I know that in those moments I am not joyous, I am pure ecstasy.  I am not happy, I am complete contentment.  I beam with giddiness, laughter, and the innocence of a child.  The city girl with high heels, hoop earrings and great outfits is still in me.  But, I have witnessed the stripping of superficialities. I love the simplicity of holding a rock in my hands and feeling the energy of the Divine.  I enjoy taking a shower and witnessing parts of the earth drain away from me.   I never understand how I get mud in my ears and hair when I haven’t been completely submerged in the waters.  Somehow the Earth wants me to take pieces of Her home.I only hope that in the midst of busyness, craziness, and modern life routines you can take time to play in whatever calls for you.  You will always find the truth of who you are by growing down rather than up.  Silliness is marvelous!“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.  Most persons do not see the sun.  At least they have a very superficial seeing.  The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child.  The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson