Getting Away From It All

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Mark 6:31 King James Version

³¹ And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

 

It’s been a week and month of busyness. A friend came over to have me help her with taxes. There’s been the usual Spanish and writing classes. I’ve battled a stubborn cough and cold, and at one point was coughing so badly I went down and got myself tested for Covid. The test turned out negative: after all I have been vaccinated and boosted and have some natural immunity from having the annoying disease last July. We’ve installed a new gas range and dishwasher. The sprinkler system sprung a leak that turned out to be more complicated than usual, so I had to dig it up and repair it and then repair the repair.

Julia and David came over one day, and we went out to Joshua Tree and took a test drive in our Ford F-150 4x4 down Berdoo Canyon in Joshua Tree National Park. It is a canyon running down from the 4,000-foot heights of Hidden Valley to the below sea level in the Coachella Valley. Drivers with four-wheel drive vehicles like to go up and down the bed of the canyon because it is really challenging. One driver described it as squirrely, possibly meaning “only a squirrel can possibly make it through there unscathed.” Travel was slow. We often got out of the pickup and walked out in front of it to lay out plans to make it through all the rocks without destroying the undercarriage or getting hopelessly hung up on some rocks.

Joshua Tree National Park has been one of those places where we can get away from it all. Often the climbs and hikes get me to the point where I forget all of the worries and despair of everyday life and think only of how to stay alive. In late winter and early spring, the plants often turn green and sport beautiful blossoms, defying the drought and extremes of temperature so common in the desert. At night the heavens are aglow with the myriads of stars that are always there but never visible in the wash of city lights. I cannot but remind myself of the grace of Jesus Christ in this inhospitably complex world we find ourselves in.

Do I succeed in actually getting away from it all? Did Christ and His disciples succeed in getting away from it all after they got in the boat and went to the desert place? Read the subsequent verses in Mark 6. The blessings are there in spite of it all.

Grant us, Lord, the desperately needed rest and grace we seek.

 

[1] https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/joshua-tree-berdoo-canyon-old-dale-brooklyn-mine-trip-report.150738/

[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=berdoo+canyon&rlz=1C1JZAP_enUS880US880&sxsrf=APq-WBuXUlW6VFDi2jh2a4Fi3xAQjMHyKQ:1649171223926&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt_ebHmf32AhXVKEQIHe3hBXAQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=916&bih=639&dpr=1.25#imgrc=AHBM-kAzwzvOgM

Our Soul Among the Living

Psalm 66:8-9

New King James Version (NKJV)

⁸ Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
⁹ Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to ^[a]be moved.

On May 23, 2020, we were climbing in Joshua Tree National Park. Sylvia suddenly fell. Neither she nor anybody else knows what happened exactly. As she fell, I heard the sickening sound thud, …thud, ...thud, …thud of soft flesh striking rock at least four times. She fell somewhere between 20 and 30 feet (almost 10 m). In the picture, my brother, Elwood, indicates the position she was in when we found her deep in a rocky crevice. She appeared to be dead.

He and our daughter Julia were the first to reach her. They thought she had to be dead until they noticed a flicker of an eyelid. She then muttered, “Hurt!” Julia encouraged her to try and sit up if she could. She responded by sitting up--with their help. Julia yelled at me to go get help.

Cell phones have no coverage in that part of the park. I tried anyway and confirmed my suspicion. Three of us headed back to the Echo T parking lot. We found two women who had just passed their EMT training, and they went back to help. I remembered that there was a group of Search & Rescue people promoting their organization at the Hidden Valley parking lot. One of them grabbed a radio and immediately started calling for help. The she drove back with me to Echo T. As I pulled to a stop, a ranger, with emergency lights flashing, pulled in next to me.  Within a very short time an emergency helicopter from the Big Bear Fire Department was circling overhead, trying to find a spot clear enough to land. Finally, they landed back at the parking lot. It took the emergency crew three hours to get Sylvia out of the crevice and into the helicopter.

Sylvia was alive! They wouldn’t let Julia and me into the hospital, of course, because of COVID-19. Sylvia was talking to me when her doctor or radiologist came in. She laid the phone down, and we heard him tell her that she had fractured her scapula, a rib, and three processes on her lumbar region vertebrae. She reminded them of blood on her head, and he the saw the big gash there. They all missed a fracture on her fibula and several fractures on the glenoid fossa on her shoulder joint. These were all on the left side of her body.

She is alive and is getting around the house on a wheel chair until the fibula heals. Her spirit is amazing, and she counts herself as a miracle woman. Several have reminded her that God must still have plans for her.

Bless our God who has kept her soul among the living!