New York Moments: Hollywood Sign and Echo Mountain Hikes

I tried to get some hiking in before my life gets really busy and exhausting again. I hiked up to the Hollywood sign and up to the hotel ruins on Echo Mountain. Both good hikes. The Hollywood sign is not as nature-y as I prefer but has a nice view of the city. I went on both of these hikes by myself, which was nice. They gave me a chance to be with God is nature.

I had a particularly good hike up Echo Mountain today with God. God was able to speak a lot of good things to me through the experience. The trail was not too crowded so there were times where I could stop and be completely alone and listen to the sound of silence. Its very refreshing to listen to the sounds of nature after living in the city.

Recently I have been reading Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved. (I will probably do another blog post on the book). I was reflecting on what is means to be the Beloved. Over the past few months I have been trying to actively pursue and experience God's love for me in a deeper way. I have a hard time recognizing when I experience God's love. I have been trying to be more aware of it. I try to check in with myself when I feel happy or doing something that I enjoy and ask myself, "Do I feel loved by God right now?" There were definitely times on the hike when I was waiting in the silence that I could say, "Yes" to that question. More than that, I could feel secure and safe in God's love, I feeling that is not always common place for me. Praise the Lord.

There was a moment when I was looking up at the sky when I saw an eagle soaring (it may not have been an eagle, but it was an eagle in my mind so the type of bird it really was is irrelevant) when I thought, "Whether or not I ever become a theatre teacher or get married doesn't really matter. My job is what I do, my relationship status is who is around me, those things are not who I am. I am Beloved and I will always be that." That was a significant realization for me given how I have been feeling recently. I have been a little anxious about how to continue to pursue my career as a theatre teacher. But even if that never happens, it does not change who I am. Also, in the past few months, a lot of the shame that I have felt about being single has really been broken. Yes, I still want to be a relationship and get married, but I lot of that shame and pain about not having those things has been lifted. I feel more free from the burden of the world's timeline for marriage and a family is. Praise the Lord, because that can only be him answering that prayer for me.

This post ended up being less about the hikes, but praise God for the way be speaks and brings peace though nature. Here are some pictures from the hikes.

Hollywood Sign Hike