Winter Expanse
Northeast Flank, Round Bald, Tennessee

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This is the northeast flank of Round Bald, a predominantly treeless mountain towering over 5,800 feet.  From here, you see Grassy Bald (rightmost in the picture), Yellow Mountain and distant Hump Mountain.  (For the relief map showing the approximate location, see this interactive USGS Carver's Gap Quadrangle.)  The photo presents an approximate two hundred degree sweep, encompassing the peak of Round Bald on the extreme left and the downward spire of its eastern ridge on the right.

When I'm wandering around in the high country, I feel alive.  The effort to climb in the thin air wakes up my body, invigorating idle and dormant muscles.  A dreamscape pours into each sense: the bite of raw cold and the strength of rock; the silence that amplifies the natural sound of clouds breezing by; and the panorama that impresses even my peripheral sight. 

Something about such lonely places also affects my soul.  I realize my frail, ephemeral presence here surely depends on God's blessing just to exist.  It's so true that in God "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  God "gives all men life and breath and everything else" (Acts 17:25).  Our lives are not futile and purposeless because each of us is important to God--He gives us life.  He meant that life be eternal...and through His Son, in spite of our unbelieving and rebellious sins, we can be restored to His eternal vision for us.