God's lake presence

"Alone is not the same as lonely.

Sometimes being alone with God on our minds

is the best place to be."

from

The Gift of Peace by Ben Stein


The wind was a bit brisk the day I visited here with my camera. 
But I think the first good spring day I will return and hopefully snag that bench for awhile.
I always seem to hear God in a different way when I'm beside a body of water.

Maybe it's because every summer from the time I was born, my family went to Lake Erie.
The Methodist Conference, of which my dad was a member, had and still has their annual meetings
at Lakeside, a beautiful, peaceful lake resort that has been almost frozen in time.

The lake became my one constant in life as far as places. 
We didn't move as much as some ministers and their families
but any move was usually not welcomed by at least one of us kids.

When we moved to this little town of B'ville, I was 9.
We stayed until I was 18.
My closest friends lived in big, old houses that their families owned.
Many were filled with family antiques.
This town is a place that encourages such.

Not so us.
Our home in every town was owned by the church.
We didn't have family antiques.
Instead, mom scrimped and saved to buy a new piece of furniture
or lamp, etc.

It bothered me--this lack of ownership ---of continuity.
That may be why I love quilts so much---the one item that was handed down
was Grandma's quilt--actually in plural.
I still have one.

So Lake Erie became my yearly sustenance.
Then Seneca Lake took its place in proximity,
but not meaning.

Now I have a little lake less than 10 minutes from my home
I think I will be sitting beside it a lot this spring.
Sitting alone, but not lonely, as I feel God's special 'lake presence'.