Trailblazer

I have been reading an exciting
 and unforgettable book called,
  "Grandma Gatewood's Walk".

 It is the inspiring, true story 
of an Ohio farm woman 
named Emma Gatewood,
 who, at age 67, 
walked the entire length
 of the Appalachian Trail
 from Georgia to Maine 
in 1955. 

 A Walk of Faith

America's Most Famous
 National Trail

stretches  2200 miles
 from Maine to Georgia,

crossing through 14 states.

Emma became interested in walking
 the famous trail after reading
 an article in National Geographic Magazine.
 She had a great love for walking outdoors
 in the forest and fields
surrounding her home in Ohio. 

Emma's journey through
 the remote wilderness 
was one of  remarkable
 courage and determination.

  Her suffering for twenty years 
at the hands of an abusive
 and sadistic tyrant of a husband
 only served to make her stronger
 and even more determine
 to live life in her own way. 

 Before she left to follow the trail,
 she told her grown up children
 that she was merely "going for a walk"
 and since they were use to
 their mother's pedestrian wanderlust 
no one really missed her
 or knew where she was
 until the newspapers

 picked up her story.

Emma On The Trail

 One of Emma's trail diaries
 recalled a night near
 the end of her journey, 
camping outdoors after
 reaching the mountains of Maine. 
 The night was bitter cold
 and as she lay huddled 
in her layers of clothing 
on the bare, frozen ground, 
surrounded by lonesome
 pine forests on all sides,
 Emma looked up
 at the frosty dark veil of sky
 glittering with thousands of stars,
 and despite her obvious discomfort,
 was overwhelmed 
by the sheer beauty
 and majesty of God's heaven.

Her experience in the solitude
 of that cold starry night
 reminds me that even in 
the uttermost places on the earth,
 which, like Mt. Katahdin,
 are often the first to herald
 the glory of the dawn,
 we are never truly alone.

Northern Lights
 Surround Mt. Katahdin
Maine

"The starry firmament on high,
And all the glories of the sky,
Yet shine not to Thy praise, O Lord,
So brightly as Thy written Word.

The hopes that holy Word supplies,
Its truths divine and precepts wise,
In each a heavenly beam I see,
And every beam conducts to Thee.

Almighty Lord, the sun shall fail,
The moon forget her nightly tale,
And deepest silence hush on high,
The radiant chorus of the sky.

But, fixed, for everlasting years,
Unmoved amid the wreck of spheres,
Thy Word shall shine in cloudless day,
When Heaven and earth have passed away."

"The Starry Firmament On High"

Words By Robert Grant

 1778-1838

Remember, in order
 to take that mountain,
you've gotta be willing 
to climb out of the valley first!

I'm sure Emma Gatewood would agree!