Be still

This morning I was looking for a picture of still water, like on a beach or shoreline after a storm. I was out of time an unable to find one. I got in the car and dropped the kids off and headed in to work. This particular commute rode parallel to a river and I couldn't help but notice the sky and the water. It was almost the exact feeling that I was looking for. However on this stretch, it was hard to find a place to pull off the road.

When I finally found an opening, I ran through the marshy grass and mud and sand (in my slacks of course). Fortunately for me, some fishermen before had left some boards to walk on.

I stood on the shore and tried to catch a few pictures but couldn't seem to get the right angle. I turned around and everything seemed to call me along a little farther down the beach. 

One more step might make a difference. Click. 

            And then another. Click. 

                    Just one more. Click, click. Click..

        Repeat.

I was drifting...

I reflect on a past and one of my favorite poems by Rod McKuen, While Drifting.

Sometimes we drift the farthest when we know exactly where we are going and what we are looking for. It is often when we do what we perceive as drifting that we instead find-

Solace.

I noticed the shore. It was covered with shells. I remembered that after a storm is always the best time to look for treasures. I made a note to take the kids some time. 

Purposefully. After a storm.

I'd found an arrow head along this river when I was younger. My heart became intent to find another trinket. I felt the call to look ahead. Directly. Down. 

Something was waiting.

I kept looking.

In a matter of minutes I held a handful of souvenirs. I found a single barnacle and some snail shells. -Some of the smallest I'd ever seen. They lie underneath the pile. 

Hidden.

Waiting,

to be discovered.

Again.

Something kept calling. 

I took a few more quick peeks between the blades of grass. The van was still running and I needed to go. It was almost out of site. 

But just as I turn to give one last goodbye...

I see it.

It was the picture that I was looking for.

-Except better.

It is what the stillness in my heart is growing into. Captured.

And so, easily I could've missed it, if I hadn't stopped just for a moment and then gotten a little deeper-

To be still.

He leads beside still waters. -Psalm 23:2

He stilled the storm to a whisper. -Psalm 107:29

Be still and know that I am God. -Psalm 46:10