Over the holiday weekend I visited the Sleeping Bear Dunes of northern Michigan. To say the least, the journey was amazing. The woods were enchanting. The beaches were mesmerizing. The experience that struck deepest, however, was definitely the dunes. The sheer magnificence of their presence struck within my being an epiphany. It was more a feeling than a thought. However, what did come to mind was ironically the silence. If you have ever been, you are probably aware of the two mile journey that takes you up and down mountains of sand. Upon reaching a certain point, there was virtually total silence. No engines. No chatter from people. There was nothing beyond the sound of a few bugs and the wind blowing in from the lake. I suddenly realized how much noise we are inundated by in our society. I knew this before, but the experience is far different from the thought. In addition to this euphoric bliss, I noticed something peculiar about the people I occasionally passed by along the walk. At first there were many, all heading back in the opposing direction, complaining about the grueling nature of the dunes. Nearly all of them quit the walk without making it to the beach, but as I continued on most of the expressions changed. People who had completed their journey felt a sense of satisfaction. They completed the walk and journeyed into a realm of nature most of us will never go through.

The point of this is blog is for me to express the message: We are missing something in most of our lives, something only nature can provide. I suggest everyone returns to it at some point on the journey they call life.