The weather has been cool today. The warm-up comes tomorrow. As I woods-walked, I ventured into boulder territory. Massive, magnificent boulders from the ice age. Rocks that let you know your temporary status on earth. Some outcroppings are just next to the road. How many people have they seen?

I thought the United States had wonderful architecture until I visited Europe. Our buildings are good for new stuff. The cathedral of Notre Dame is 862 years old. So it goes with Giant City’s boulders. Their natural beauty has seen many cold winters and hot summers.

Boulders appear in our lives. Things happen that seem insurmountable. We are equipped with our hand saw and claw hammer while the boulders watch bemused. At times boulders release themself from their mountain and fall into the valley. It pays not to be in the way of the rolling rock. People build their expensive homes on boulders. Their strength and longevity challenge the beachhouse.

Sisyphus rolled a boulder up a steep hill only to watch it roll back to the bottom. He then proceeded to roll it back up the incline again. The importance of embracing purpose and mission is contained in the narrative.

‘Welcome all to our little meeting,’ the Preacher said. ‘Lately, I have heard of some leaders and politicians extolling us to build our lives on their tenuous claims of knowing all and seeing all, somewhat like Merlin in the old fortune-telling machines of our youth,’ the Preachers said. ‘To receive Merlin’s prognostications, you put a quarter in the slot and he turned his mechanical head with its manic grin and out popped the paid-for fortune,’ the Preacher laughed.

‘Who should we listen to for life advice?’ Chet asked Preacher? ‘Is it the easy, vengeful answer full of malice and venom,’ Chet continued. ‘Or are the boulders in these woods an example of permanence and sense of place?’ Chet said.

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock,’ the Preacher said with a smile of love.