Overwhelming "awww"...

You would think that constantly being surrounded by such beauty would make one loose the magnificence of such a place as the Swiss Alps. But it is my belief that no one could live there for 1 day much less, 100 years and loose that feeling of awww that pervades every second you stand there stairing. It is an experience that words do no justice for, you just have to go there. Mark, who had been to this tiny Appilation town many times before, kept saying to Jeff and I, "I can't explain it, you just have to go!"... It was strait out of a movie, a fantasitcally done theater set. It was a sureal experince, one that I am constantly reminding myself that I personally stood infront of and saw with my own two worldly eyes. I can only wonder at the full vastness of it all, God's vastness blows me away. I could have stood there for the rest of my life drinking in every detail I could and still have had 5 lifetimes left of looking.

I spent last weekend in a tiny Village called Gimmelwald in the Swiss Alps. Jeff, Mark and I ended up traveling all day after classes on Friday to get to Gimmelwald because of the clean up of central Switzerland after the large floods that happened a couple of weeks ago. We had to take the long way and we missed a couple of our connecting trains by a few minutes (the beauty of train traveling) so by the time we were on the gondola going up to Gimmelwald it was dark. Yet waking up in the morning was actually a plesant experience for once, waking to the veiw of gigantic mounians filling the windows in our room. We fuled up with a good breakfast and then hit the trail. It was a day full of relizations that I could do much much more than I had convinced myself of, a relization that I am glad happened at 21 and not later in life. We hiked Schilthorn Mountain. For the majority of the hike, we couldn't see the peek, if that tells you anything about the nature of this hike. It was a day full of steep drop-offs, amazing views, breathtaking turns, sound of music feilds, photogenic cows, extremely high heights, wrong turns and trailblazing, "master Frodo! Do you still have the ring?!" moments, sounds and smells I wish never to encounter again, and finally... VICTORY! For all of those who know me well, you know that I am one of those people who would like to stay as close to solid ground as possible. Yet there came a literal turning point very close to the end of our treck. We were so close to peeking. 20 minutes maximum and we would be done, I could see the top. The only thing standing between me and a huge sense of accomplishment was 40 feet of uncertinty. In order to get to the final peek we had to cross over this pathway which had nothing on either side except two of the steepest drop-offs I have ever seen in my life. With the wind picking up and it getting colder, i had a choice to make, either turn around and hike 6 hours back to Gimmelwald by myself, OR suck it up and do it! The choice was not hard, but going through with it was... I kept repeating to myself as i practically crawled across this pathway shaking all the way, " Suck it up Karen, Suck it up! Don't cry, you are with boys, DON'T CRY!!!" I did it and we made it safely up to the top, now i still won't go throwing myself off bridges for fun like all of you who do that off the Aburitum Bridge in Seattle, but i think i can watch now without imagining your deaths!

It truely was an amazing experience that I never believed I would get the chance to do and now can't imagine what life would be like with out having had this experience. There was no random thoughtless chemical reaction that created the Alps and especially the being which enjoy and inhabit the Alps. God's magnificently terrifying and wonderfully loving hand is obvious as you stand, smaller than the smallest creature, feeling importantly insignificant infront of his enormus creation.

It was all too emense to fit into the tiny veiw finder of my digital this was the best i could do...