Mahala Street: The Woods So Green / Heart of Grace

The absolute best news of the week is this: the temperatures are dropping!!! The morning was cool enough that my husband dropped me off on Mahala Street and I did what I call the Mahala Street hike, which is a bit more than 3 miles or so.

This is a picture of Mahala Street and I have to say it just cracks me up that this green path has an actual name. Street, HA! It's a cow path into the woods! And that's what I love about it! Mahala goes right into the Scotia Barrens, and from this point, I walk through the Barrens, and home.

I found the woods quite green, and full of hungry mosquitoes, who took the opportunity to try to bite me every time I stopped for a photo. (Oh, how I suffer for my craft.) T. Tiger and I found quite a few colorful mushrooms, many green ferns, constellations drawn on the plants, and inscrutably cryptic leaf messages written by tiny writers, all unidentified so far.

I don't know if you have had a moment to walk in the woods today, but please enjoy this lovely green pathway and the psychological benefits it provides. You are welcome to walk with me, into the woods so green. Excepting the mosquitoes, you will find few dangers here. There is nowhere I feel more safe.

Now, there was another thing I wanted to say about this day. I don't know if you keep up with the Little League World Series, which eventually takes place in Pennsylvania, but there was a great tale that came out of it this week, regarding the Little League Southwest Regional Playoff in Waco, Texas. This is a story about giving and receiving grace. 

The one little boy, Kaiden Shelton, was the pitcher, and he threw a ball that hit another little boy, the batter - Isaiah Jarvis - in the head, knocking off his helmet and sending him to the ground. The batter recovered, stood up, and walked to first base. The pitcher stood on the mound and cried. The batter walked over to the pitcher and gave him a hug and verbal encouragement.

There was a follow-up news story with the two little boys, in which the media interviewed them and asked what they were feeling at those moments. “I wanted to go over there and spread God’s love and make sure that he’s OK, and make sure that he knows that I’m OK and that I’ll be OK,” said Isaiah, the batter.

For his part, Kaiden, the pitcher, observed that the batter was made of different cloth. “Isaiah he has – his heart is different for people,” he added. “He’s just a good kid.” Yes, I'll tell you what's different: this is how amazing life can be when grace is given and received between people with open hearts! And a little child shall lead them.

Original story here.
Interview with the two boys here.

My soundtrack song is for these woods that feel like home to me now, the Scotia Barrens, these woods so green. Where I found the song: My husband and I have been rewatching The Blacklist. We are up to season 3, episode 17, where Tom and Lizzie get married in what we can definitely call a shotgun wedding, and escape like Bonnie and Clyde amid a hail of bullets (part of scene here, more of scene here). I have never seen a scene like this one, anywhere, ever. Yes, it's violent and there is gun-play; skip it if you can't handle those things. The song playing through it is this one: Electric Presidents, with Safe and Sound. And that is my soundtrack song for my walk in these green woods.