Mt Geez is a common place near where I live that a lot of people, adults and kids, will go for any number of reasons. It’s a good place to hike, nice for a picnic, the scenery is beautiful, and it’s really a wonderful place to go and think if you need quiet and solitude. It’s open in the morning and closes at sunset and free to visit. Some people drive up it and park just to talk or watch the sunset. It’s out in the country overlooking a large field where cattle graze, and the other side is wooded. It is a very large, steep hill and should you choose to hike up it make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes, take along a drink, and plan on staying a while cause it’s a very long hike.
I often went there to sit and think and reflect on my life and though it’s been a few years since I have been there I would often go there as a teen and as an adult. Something about the solitude of the place always made me feel good. I liked the feel of the wind in my hair, the sun on my face, and the feeling of being close to nature. It’s a place where I always felt very content and happy. When I was about seventeen I drove my car up the long and winding road to the very top. I was alone, I remember specifically because if anyone else had been there I would have turned around and left as soon as I had arrived. I was looking for solitude that day. Most of my life had been filled with darkness and pain. I was depressed, felt unwanted, unappreciated, and utterly alone. I had no friends; I fought with my parents all the time and felt that they didn’t understand me. I didn’t really see any reason to go on living at that point. Life made no sense, I was miserable and I just wanted to find a way out. I don’t know if I would have really tried to kill myself then but I was definitely thinking about it.
I parked my car and got out. There was a small parking area, big enough for maybe three cars. The rest of the area was grass and woods. There was a picnic table to the right of me near a thick collection of trees with long arm like branches reaching out over the table and grass. It was shaded there but it was around noon so I could see clearly around me. The table was empty, no other cars were around, no hikers in the woods, there was only the sounds of the wind in the leaves and the chirping of some far off birds. I walked to the guard rail that sectioned off the grassy slope that over looked the winding dirt path one had to ascend in order to reach the top. Disobeying the warning sign, I stepped over the rail which was nothing more than wooden posts with a thick rope between them, and sat down in the grass. From where I sat I could see not only the winding path but also the gate that marked the entrance and the road beyond it that lead to the gate. If you traveled past the gate you would find a farm house and then a church and old cemetery. I was in the country, far away from any cities, major high ways, or even residential homes. I sat there in the grass for the longest time thinking about my life, where it was headed, what my future would be like and if there was any reason to go on living. I felt sad and hopeless like despair had washed over me and taken away any measure of happiness I may have at one point had. About the time I had gotten up to leave I heard voices behind me. They were not talking to me but to each other as though they were old friends remembering old times. I figured that some hikers had walked up through the woods and were now sitting on the picnic table. They would have been able to get there without my knowing it had they walked but when I turned around I was shocked to see that they were not hikers but instead there was a man in his 40’s dressed like an old hippy that refused to change with the times, and a biker sitting on motor cycle. The Hippy was on the picnic table but he had driven there in a brown convertible. The Biker was dressed in black leather and had a beard. He was slender but muscular and looked to be in his late 30’s. I had no idea how these two men had managed to get there without me seeing them let alone hearing their engines. They could not have driven up that path without passing right in front of my eyes yet there they were. When they saw me they smiled and began to talk to me. I hadn’t said a word to either of them but they instantly knew why I was there. My life was not worth living and I was ready to end it but they told me that God had a plan for me and that things would get better if I had faith and kept my chin up. I was leery of the two men yet I felt compelled to sit and talk with them. Almost at once any fears I had were gone. They were kind, they were funny, and they made me smile. They talked to me for a long time about God and the bible and they asked me if I was familiar with God’s word. I told them that I was, I had been born into a Baptist family and brought up in church but that as I grew older I lost my faith. I told them that I felt God had abandoned me and the biker said that God would never abandon me that maybe I just didn’t know how to hear him.
It started to get late and they both said that they had to go. I thanked them and then watched as they drove off, the biker first, his engine roaring loudly, then the hippy followed, gospel music playing loudly over the hum of his engine. I watched as they drove around the twisting path back down the side of the hill and I waited for them to go past me down the slope but before they their vehicles could come around, they were gone. No engine, no music, no hum of the convertible, they were just gone as mysteriously as they had arrived. I got in my car and drove down slowly, carefully around the narrow curves until I crossed the small bride at the gate. I pulled out onto the road aptly named Pleasant Valley, and started for home, a little bit confused, shocked maybe but with a feeling of awe and amazement. Who were the strange men I met that day on Mt Geez? They never gave me their names and I never saw them again after that day. How did they happen to appear at that very spot on a day when I was feeling so low that I wanted to end my life, and how did they know what was in my heart? I’ve told this story to others over the years and usually people say that I was probably so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice them. There is always some rational explanation they say but I like to think that they were angels and they were sent to me at a moment when I was at my weakest. I wouldn’t say that I am a very religious person, I certainly wasn’t that day. Spiritual maybe but I have always questioned my faith. I knew that there was a God but I never thought he cared about me at all, not until that day. Now it makes me wonder, why me? Why did they choose to share their message with me? I have had other struggles, sorrows, and disappointments throughout my life since that day but I know that when I am feeling down, confused or just in need of any measure of encouragement, I think of my two friends on Mt Geez and remember what they told me, God has a plan, keep my chin up, keep my faith and things will get better.
