Author: Fred D

Yesterday the Lord gave me a humbling experience. It was my privilege to join some men from church to help a man sort through the ruble of his home claimed by the devastating Gatlinburg, TN fire. A blackened, crumbling cinderblock foundation was all that remained standing. The sense of loss was nauseatingly palpable. The intense…

Each year at this time I stand at streamside in awe of the mystery unfolding before me . . . salmon returning thousands of miles from the uncharted reaches of the sea.  Their innate,  infallible GPS navigates them to the precise place in freshwater streams and ponds where they began life years ago.  Not a single…

Old Glory’s stars and stripes, the banner of the world’s most prosperous, powerful nation of which I was born under as a citizen.  The red stripes remind me of the blood my forefathers shed that made it possible for me to claim my American citizenship. Less than 4.4 % of this world’s ever expanding 7.4…

My son and I took off at sea level yesterday to traverse what the hiking guide aptly described as a “….difficult and strenuous….” trek up Bird Ridge, one of Alaska’s many magnificent mountains. An overcast sky accompanied by steady oceanic breezes kept temps in the ‘balmy’ 50s. My son’s 23 year old sports model frame…

Soooooo . . . once again I find myself gazing down on creation from 35,000 ft. . . . always inspiringly awesome! If only Wilbur and Orville could have envisioned what Kittyhawk would become. As customarily happens aboard an aluminum tube zooming through the clouds at 600 mph . . . it got me to…

Carved in a stone at the foot of our bridge are the words, “How lovely is the silence of growing things.” The beauty of this silence, so easily muted by the busy din of our everyday world, whispered softly to me as I meandered along the sun dappled stream this afternoon. Here’s a glimpse of the…

The result of timeless chance, or a timeless Creator? 

Been a while since logging a post, so thought it might be time to bring y’all up-to-date with a brief synopsis of ‘holler’ happenings up here on the mountain.   Blessed would succinctly, but all too inadequately, sum it up. This pic of redbud blossoms is a mere glimpse of the Smoky Mountain splendor that we wake up…

An inexplicable, paradoxical peace envelops me whenever I’m alone in the wilderness and Mother Nature unleashes her awesome fury in raging winds, white-out blizzards, or torrential thunderstorms.  Such was mine to behold yesterday along the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River in the majestic Smoky Mountains . . . what an omnipotent God is…

Less than two months ago I sat on a jet headed NE gazing down over the Rockies through the clouds.  Now the jet’s headed SE, with the Rockies far below the clouds once again.  Somewhere down there, a couple of centuries ago, Indians roamed along mountain trails, gazing upward through the clouds . . .…