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Sauk Mountain Magic

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By Karen Molenaar Terrell

Sauk Mountain and I have a long history together. The first time I hiked up Sauk was in 1985. I would have been 28 or 29 then. My husband was working as a photographer for the Skagit Valley Herald and he took a photo of me on Sauk, with the caption, “Hiker Karen Terrell negotiates a switchback on Sauk Mountain.” A few years later I climbed to the top of Sauk with my dad, Dee Molenaar, who would have been in his seventies. I have a photo of me standing on Sauk with Dad, both of us smiling at the joy of being together in the mountains. When we became parents, Sauk Mountain was one of the first hikes Scott and I took our sons on. And our dog, Sam, went up as a puppy and, later, as a full-grown Labradane in her prime. Sauk holds a lot of sweet memories for me.

This has been a busy summer – our calendar looks like an obstacle course of comings and goings – appointments, lunches, events, zoom meetings, trips – good and important things – but, alas, other than a quick little hike at Artist Point, it’s been hard to find time to get back into the mountains, and I’ve missed them something terrible. Our busy schedule sometimes left me feeling frustrated this summer – feeling like my time was running out – and I reached out to God, Love, in my thoughts to find some comfort. The message that came to me was to be patient and wait. The time would come. Love isn’t limited and Life isn’t ever done giving gifts.

This weekend my brother, Dave, and my niece, Claire, visited us. On Saturday they ran in a 14-mile race near Issaquah and then spent Saturday and Sunday nights with us. On Sunday morning, as we were gathered around the table eating breakfast, I mentioned that I was missing the mountains and longing for a good hike. Scott wasn’t able to come with us, but he suggested that maybe the three of us should go up Sauk. Dave looked at me and asked, “You wanna go?” And boom – just like that – I had the opportunity to be back in the mountains on one of my favorite hikes, with my brother and niece – two of my favorite people!

It had been almost 40 years since I FIRST hiked up Sauk Mountain and two years since the LAST time I’d hiked it. A lot had happened in the last two years – and, to be honest, I wasn’t sure how my body was going to feel about me putting it back on the Sauk Mountain trail. I was a little nervous that it was going to rebel. In the past I’ve had some struggles when it gets too hot, and it was going to be a hot day and we were going to be hitting the trail near noon. And… people of my age are sometimes referred to as “elderly” – so the thought, “I’m old!” was poking around in my head. Also: “I’m heavy!” “I’m old and I’m heavy and I don’t do well in the heat.”

But…

God had just presented me with a gift – a gift I had been pining for and prayed for – and how could I not accept it? And if the gift came from Love – how could it bring conditions with it? All I needed to do was accept this gift and enjoy it. All those other things – age and size and heat – were just obstacles of my imagining and couldn’t stop Love’s unfolding of Good.

It didn’t take us long to fill our backpacks with the essentials and head out the door. We loaded ourselves into Dave’s truck, Dusty, and set out for the mountains.

When we got to the trailhead, Dave, an ultra runner, made sure Claire and I had everything we needed and then ran ahead. While he zipped up to the summit, and then ran back to check on us before he headed out again – this time for Sauk Lake – Claire and I made our way up the switchbacks of the southern face, stopping now and then to take photos or rest in the few shady patches under the trees to rehydrate. Claire and Dave had never been up Sauk before, and it brought me a lot of joy to be the one to introduce them to this hike. When we reached the top of the switchbacks and moved to the other side of the mountain – my favorite part of the hike – it brought a grin to my face when I heard Claire exclaim, “It just keeps getting better and better!”

The hills were full of magic, my friends! Insects flitted among the alpine wildflowers – Indian paintbrush, asters, and bluebells; there was the smell of mountain heather and ozone; there were friendly, happy people sharing the trail with us; patches of snow, and craggly boulder ridges, and green meadows, and butterflies that came together to party in the middle of the trail. It was everything and more than I’d hoped for. And all those worries that had tried to limit me – age, size, heat – had no power to stop me from enjoying the gift of this day in the mountains.

Here are some photos of “Sauks Past”: Dad and me; Scott and the sons and me, circa 1996; Scott and me on Sauk, several years ago; and Scott and Sam Dog. And there’s a picture of Dave and Claire and me on this week’s hike…


And here are some photos from our hike this week…

Mount Baker from Sauk Mountain
The switchbacks up Sauk.
Indian paintbrush flowers brighten the meadow.

Look What’s Blooming!

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Maybe 25 years ago, in a magic encounter, a woman in Sedro gifted me with crocosmia bulbs. I planted them in our then home and then dug them up and bought them to Bow when we moved here 20 years ago. I planted them by a stump. Over the years the stump got overgrown and the crocosmia stopped blooming. I sort of forgot about them. But today – look what popped out to say “hi”!

Here’s an excerpt from Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist in which I describe how I acquired these crocosmia:

On my daily walks of five years ago I use to pass this beautiful yard that looked like a park. There were islands of flowers everywhere, all aesthetically placed and pleasing to the eye. It was obvious that the hand of a professional was at work there. But for months I never saw anyone actually working in the garden. I was intrigued. The flowers that most caught my eye in this garden were the long sprays of flame-orange crocosmia that shot out of the islands. I’d never seen this type of plant before – or if I had, I’d never noticed it – but they were hard to miss in this garden.

I found myself lusting after them. Weeks went by and the crocosmia were on their last legs when I finally met the owner of the garden. She was directing a handful of children in the weeding of her garden when I first saw her. She was pretty, lively, and had an aura of positive energy about her, and she was directing her child-helpers from a wheelchair. I walked up to her, shook her hand, introduced myself, and told her I’d been admiring her bright orange flowers for weeks. Laughing, she agreed that they were, indeed, beautiful. She told me they were called “crocosmia” and generously offered to give me some bulbs in the autumn. She didn’t have to offer twice. She gave me her card – I learned she worked at the University of Washington – and told me to call her in October and she’d dig some bulbs up for me.

When October came I was too shy to call. So I just kept walking by her house, hoping she would see me and recognize me. This was a long shot, I knew. This woman was a busy lady and probably met a lot of people on a daily basis – if she even remembered who I was it would be a miracle. But, as we learn in Christian Science, miracles (or rather natural goodnesses) do happen! There came a day when the garden lady was out in her yard as I walked by. She looked up, immediately recognized me, and told me that now was the perfect time to dig up some crocosmia bulbs.

I came home from that walk with a plastic bag brimming with bulbs, feeling like I’d just robbed a candy store. When we moved to Bow several years later and built our new house, I planted those bulbs in my Secret Garden. I think of that pretty lady with the lively spirit, and her generosity to me.

Crocosmia popping up to say “hi”!

“An Angel Entertained Unawares”

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The more I think about that delightful phone conversation with the IRS lady yesterday, the more I appreciate the magic of it. (See yesterday’s blog post.) I mean… here’s this thing I’m dreading – one more task I have to take care of. One last thing I need to do to take care of Dad’s business – and I thought I’d already done the last thing when I’d had his 2020 tax return sent it. I’d heaved a huge sigh of relief that I was finally done with my duties. After four years of paperwork, of forms, calls to hospice and doctors, Veterans Administration people and financial institutions – that last tax return felt, to me, like I’d finally crossed the finish line and finished the marathon. And then to get that letter from the IRS, telling me that now I had to verify his identity for that 2020 tax return… it felt like it was just too much, you know?

But it ended up being this incredible gift to me! A gift from Dad. A gift from Love, God. I’d needed this. This was the EXACT thing I’d needed yesterday. But it was the LAST thing I thought I needed. I was feeling sick from the vaccine, frustrated by life-stuff, and cranky. And Love gave me this gift that forced me to go a different direction – that forced me to draw close to Love and allowed me to meet a new friend.

“The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.”
-Mary Baker Eddy

Valentine’s Gift

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“Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light.”
– Mary Baker Eddy

It may not come in the form
of a Valentine’s card
a box of chocolates
a sparkly ring in a jewelry box
a dozen roses
But if you look for it today
you’ll see it –
that gift meant just for you –
the evidence of Love’s love.

See it in the smile you get
from a stranger,
in the sunrise and sunset,
the stars sparkling
in the night sky
and the rainbow
unique to you
– no one else sees it
just as you do.

You bring your own gift
within you wherever
you go.
Feel it. Hear it.
Embrace it. Know
Life’s love.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

 “Three components are necessary for a rainbow. There must be sun, there must be raindrops, and there must be a conscious eye…your eyes must be located at that spot where the refracted light from the sunlit droplets converges to complete the required geometry. A person next to you will complete his or her own geometry… and will therefore see a separate rainbow… As real as the rainbow looks, it requires your presence just as much as it requires sun and rain.”
– Robert Lanza, Biocentricism

A rainbow arches over Padilla Bay in Skagit County, Washington. (photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell)

She’s Still Giving

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Something really magical happened tonight. As Scott and I were getting ready to leave for our son’s improv show I looked down on the floor and saw this card lying there. I have no idea where it came from. I opened it up and it was a card from Moz! Today is the second anniversary of Moz’s passing and I’ve been thinking of her all day long. Finding her card lying there was like this huge, cosmic, unexpected gift. Inside the card was a Valentine’s message and a check (dated 2013) for the son we were on our way to see. I felt like Moz was directing me to bring the card and check to him tonight. And so I did. Moz always said, “I’m a giver!” And she’s still giving.

Moz card to us

Photo Jewelry and a Box Full of Things That Make Me Smile

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photo jewelry

by Karen Molenaar Terrell

 

I was toodling around with my photos – trying to put together a box full of stuff that makes me smile – and I thought to myself, “Self,” I thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if I could make jewelry out of pictures of sky, sea, and flora to share with my friends?” And so I did.

I also made that “box full of stuff that makes me smile” – I put in the box URLs to some of my favorite youtube clips, pictures of baby animals, and bits of Nature. It is a Christmas gift for you. Okay, so, like, it’s maybe not the key to a sparkly new car or actual jewelry you can really wear on your fingers and dangle from your neck, but it comes from the heart. And that’s got to count for something, right? 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Here are the URLs you’ll find in the box:



box full of magic