I have been a trail runner for a long time.  I have also been a mountaineer for many years now. I met another who became a mountaineer. A mountaineer is someone who adapts to life in the wild. When he cannot move forward or backward, he bivouacs. He lies still waiting for the storm to pass so that he can move forward again.  We did it together.  We were husband and wife for 42 years.........we climbed many mountains together.

We bivouaced on the side of a cliff one night, 6 of us tied together and pitoned into the rock, overcome by the night, unable to continue down the face in the dark; Five men with our knees up, and Lynn lying horizontally under all of our knees. The storm that we were aniticipating never came. In fact it was eerily quiet and silent that night as we waited in the dark for morning to come.

Little did I know that years later I would bivouac again in the climb of my life, this time silent without my beautiful climbing partner........quiet- waiting for the storm to pass- to move forward again- long and seemingly never ending. "My name is silence. Silence is my bivouac, and my supper sipped from bowls." Annie Dillard.

"Be still and know that I am God." says the One above me, the one who belays me in the climb of life. "......Search your heart and be silent" , he says in the dark.........in silence. "But I don't know where to go from here", I tell Him. And He replies, "In stillness and quiet will be your strength."