Recently, Jack and I took a day trip to the Catskills, a mountain range that would be pretty anytime but now. Out the window of our car I saw only naked trees – no leaves, no colorful foliage, no snow laden branches, only dry, stark limbs and ground. It was like looking at a skeleton, seeing the structure that supports all the beauty.

The landscape looked vulnerable, unprotected. I could look through the bare trunks and branches and see the nests in the trees and the houses beyond the trees which normally are hidden from view. The land is laid bare.

What does this evoke in me? Interestingly, a desire to be stripped and revealed, to have what is elemental and strong within me to be seen and honored. Wow, that is my unchecked emotional response and it frightens me a little.

To be stripped sounds violent. It suggests that vulnerability doesn’t always come easily. Desiring to be known and honored in a relationship forces me to lay bare my soul. I must strip myself of ego and pretense if the true and elemental me is to be revealed. Lord, have mercy.