pine trees- a sign from god. you're just gonna' have to trust me on this.

I have to mention something that probably isn’t going to sound too powerful on paper, but that was beyond powerful to actually spiritual when it happened. We drove through the pines. That was the exact moment that I knew this is where I belong. It had the feel of a sign from god. For the past several years- 5 maybe- I have had an almost visceral reaction to the smell of pine trees. Not fake pine, or air fresheners…just the real thing. This goes beyond loving the smell. It is as if it reaches down and stirs something in my soul that I can’t quite place. When the scent reaches me, I stop what I am doing and just experience it. It is like a brief feeling of ecstasy. I have never been able to figure out why this is. It hasn’t always been that way, and I have never had an experience, to my knowledge, that has made such a positive impact that it could have created this association. Regardless, it happens. Every time, over the past 5 or so years.  As we drove up the mountain to Dadeldhura, we drove through a stand of pine and it hit me again, but this time it brought an instant lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. It was as if that was god’s way of telling me I finally found it- the place he’s called me to. Here, halfway around the world from my “home”, I am experiencing that visceral, spiritual reaction and it has the earmark of a word from god. It is both comforting and exhilarating. It feels like with each breath, as I breathe in that scent, the god shaped hole in me is filled just a tiny bit and I am closer to completion.

See? I told you it would be lost in translation. You’ll just have to believe me. When god speaks to me, no matter how random the delivery of that message, I listen.