The Sound of Music

Austria is all that... and then some.

I never had any reason to doubt Maria von Trapp -- what with that innocent face and angelic voice -- still, visiting Austria for the first time, seeing it with my eyes and hearing it with my ears is an epiphany. The hills are indeed alive with the sound of music. The songs of the mountains, which have been sung for thousands of years, cause my heart to expand, inflate, elevate, and reach out in an experience of rediscovered life.

Hiking through the misty dawn around the majestic expanse of the Millstatersee seems to be exactly what my heart has needed. The fresh mountain air has awakened parts of me which I didn't even know were sleeping. These past couple of days, I've felt like a puppy -- panting, pulsing, pounding my talk against the floor -- hoping at every moment for another run through the Alpine trails.

Oh, to be in the mountains! I don't know why a boy from the flatlands of Ohio, living in the flatlands of Holland, should have such a built-in desire for the mountains...

But I do. And I thank God that I'm in Austria this week.