Take Time to Smell the Sap.

My father in law once said that a summer's duration is directly proportional to the length of time we have spent on the planet. You know... when you were a small child summer lasted forever... because it was a small percentage of the whole, but as time passed the percentage decreased and with it our perceived length of the  summer months.

Well no better example of that is demonstrated to me then this photograph. 

This is a shot taken of my home in Edmonton, Looking out the front window of that home at a very special place. Except that that place no longer exists. Now don't get me wrong, the home still stands complete with its new exterior, straight walk and fresh coat of paint, but this place...does not. To the untrained eye it simply looks like a poorly kept front yard, with a poorly built bench and badly laid brickwork, but that my friend would be to the untrained eye, for this place was much more.

This place was a special hidden sanctuary built by my father, to take him back to the mountains. Back to the place where God speaks clearly, and the world is at peace. 

You see here, my dad had carved out the inside of four large pine trees, removing their lower branches in order to build a place to just rest and think. Here he would sit and listen to the wind whistle through the pine needles and remember tall stands of Douglas firs on the west side of the continental divide. 

Here he would smell the sweet aroma of the pine sap as it slowly, ever so slowly dripped from the cut marks on the side of the trunk and remember being the first to blaze trails into lakes that were not even named on the map. 

Here, his friends, the squirrels and bunnies would visit and take him back to the grizzlies and cougars that would have visited his camp years earlier. 

Here my father could be at peace. 

That was nine years ago that I last sat in his sanctuary under the pines... nine years ago that we shared hiking stories while enjoying a iced tea in among those pillars. 

Now the summers that used to crawl by, flies. My children who only a moment ago were with Grampa under the trees, listening to the moment that the bear ran away with his camera, are now beginning to graduate from University and start their own adventures. And the place of peace and rest is no more.

Life is like that you know. Like the song says, you don't know what you've got til it's gone. Well now it's gone and with it memories are fading along with the smell of pine and the sound of the wind. 

But for a moment this summer let me encourage you to stop and smell the Pine, touch the bark, stick your fingers together with the sap, and look under the logs for the squirrel. It is then and only then that you will bring back those things that are most dear, even if only for a moment.

Have a great summer.