Don’t Miss It

Last week, Terrie and I decided to take a driving trip. It was really at her encouragement and she planned most of the trip. It had been many years since I had been to the southwest part of Colorado. Terrie had been there a couple of years ago with her hiking group (The Kept Women’s Hiking Society) and while there she discovered what might be her all-time favorite hike. She really wanted to me see “Ice Lake”, the destination of the hike so our four day adventure revolved around doing the hike.

The final destination of our trip was Durango, Colorado so we took off the morning of July 6th after deciding our drive would be a loop, taking the more central route to Durango on the way down and circling back north and east across the western slope on the way home. Keep in mind that Terrie is a native Coloradan and I have lived here 52 years. Neither of us had ever been to the town of Salida so we took the time to get off the main highway and drive into the town. We discovered a beautiful, well kept, historic place filled with ginger bread houses with manicured lawns and cozy porches. The downtown area was a small but well kept area containing mountaineering stores, coffee shops, restaurants and of course micro breweries. The locals we talked to were so pleasant and accommodating, obviously happy to have us there. On our way out of town we looked at each other with a clear understanding that we were sorry that we had missed out by not visiting Salida sooner.

Our next stops were in equally interesting and beautiful places. Lunch in Del Norte then over the beautiful Wolf Creek Pass and on to Pagosa Springs for a walk around the hot springs. From there it was a short 50 minute drive to Durango, our final destination for the day.

The next morning we were up early to have a quick breakfast and hit the road toward Silverton and the trailhead to Ice Lake, the real reason for the trip to begin with. Terrie knew the area would get crowded and parking might be an issue so she wanted to get there as early as possible. The drive to Silverton is spectacular, winding over the San Juan mountains. The vistas from some of the overlooks revealed vast, extraordinarily beautiful valleys and jagged, rugged mountain peaks and crests. At a few points the road skirts extreme fall offs, causing a little angst about getting too close to the edge (there are very few areas with guard rails). When we finally reached the parking lot for the trailhead we saw Terrie’s suspicions were right, the lot was almost full and there were hikers everywhere preparing to head up the trail to Ice Lake. The hike itself was one of the more difficult ones I have done with her. It is a 8.7 mile round trip and from the start climbs 3200 feet to a scene that cannot be described, it must be viewed first hand. Along the way we saw too many waterfalls to count, fields of amazing color created by blooms of early summer wildflowers including bundles of delicate Columbines. Knowing I might balk, Terrie never revealed the difficulty of the hike but she kept encouraging me as we climbed higher and higher toward the lake. She kept telling me I was about to have an “ah ha moment.” Boy was she right. Making the final push to the cirque holding the lake was fueled by her passion for what I was about to see.

When we left the parking lot the sky was clear and the temperature was climbing. When we reached the lake clouds were moving in, there was a steady breeze and it was at least 20 degrees cooler than down below. By the time we completed our climb to Island Lake, the next lake above Ice Lake, it was sleeting. We started our decent more out of concern for the weather than anything else. Total round trip, 5 1/2 hours but worth every step (I think my phone said there were about 22,000 of them.)

So this blog isn’t supposed to be a travel log and while I would love to tell you about the rest of what was a great trip I will resist boring you. This blog is supposed to be about my experiences, my journey, about God, Love, Life and Lessons. This blog is intended to share some of my journey in hopes it will help the readers avoid some of my mistakes or at the very least take some of the lessons I have learned along the way and build on them to make your own personal journey the best it can be. I don’t want you to “miss it” because for many years I did and the events of the past week made me realize how much I had missed. The best part is, the events of the past week also helped me celebrate the fact that I haven’t missed everything. I still have a chance to finish well and experience the life God intended for me. About right now you are probably thinking, oh boy, here comes the old stale lecture about stopping to smell the roses. Sorry, I am going to disappoint you again because I am not going to tell you to do that.

The past several weeks of living in a pandemic has taught me a lot and one of the most important lessons has come through watching Terrie. You see, she is not going to “miss it” because she is living within her God given talents and giftings. She is so good at being who God created her to be that it is recognized and embraced by her friends and certainly by me. Her life and relationship with her friends is her ministry and her firm belief is that no one should “miss it” – the opportunity to experience the joy she knows. The way Terrie lives her life is a great testimony to her faith and even her non-believing friends look to her when they run into a wall and decide it might be time find a little spiritual guidance.

I believe living a truly satisfying, rich life is a blending of many things. God creates each of us differently and instills us with gifts/talents and passions that are unique and amazing. The goal of our journey is to discover what our unique gifts and passions are and then blend them into an exuberant life experience that honors God and satisfies our soul. What I would like for you to learn from my experience is that for far too long I did “miss it” because I was looking the other way. I didn’t know, or maybe I should say I didn’t want to listen to what God was trying to tell me about the abundant life He planned for me. I was missing the Ice Lake hikes because I was determined to plan my own course and follow it. The result of my self-reliant stubbornness was I became moody, dissatisfied, and abusive. I wasn’t a good husband, father, son or friend because I was not working within the very specific, personal talents God gave me. I can also tell you, from my experience, discovering and working in your gifting is like making that final push to that cirque and seeing Ice Lake. It will be an exhilarating, satisfying, and comforting moment, filled with the realization that you now really have something to look forward to and that you are not going to “miss it.”

My encouragement to you? Don’t take the self-reliant, safe route thinking that is the best way to avoid “missing it.” Take the exciting, risky, exploratory route as you discover all the amazing things God has in store for you. It’s not easy and just like Terrie did with me, you might need someone to help guide you. Someone who will not scare you to death about the challenge but someone who has been there before and knows the difficulty of the climb. Someone who will continue to encourage you to not give up and turn away from the climb. Someone who does not want you to “miss it.” It is never too late to find your Ice Lake.