Getting Lost, and Finding THE tree

This year we made the trip out to the woods for the infamous tree. We have done this before and in theory this idea of cutting down the tree is really great but in reality with crying babies, cold children, or children who are hungry, or children who are wet cause they fell down in the mud or ice or whatever....not so great. This year was different.
We went very spur of the moment and with some pretty great friends. It was a beautiful drive out to Frenchman's and I forgot how much fun 4bying(sp?) with the man can be , mostly because of the smile it puts on his face(he really does need an off road toy, shh...don't tell him I said so). The kids were really great as well with lots of laughs and no mishaps it made me believe that we might actually start this tradition back up again.
Anyway, back to what I wanted to blog about.While we were out there though there was a patch of trees that I got tangled up in all alone (don't know how that happened as I am always telling the kids not to wander off) and at one point it got pretty hairy and scary(not really but I am adding that for dramatic effects). The trees were all dead and so close together and I had got way off the trail from everyone else and I had no idea where I was(not afraid because of my photographic memory, I have never been truly lost in my life, probably why I really wasn't afraid) and I began to think what would it be like to really be lost out there. Strange thoughts to have on this day but there I was having them and the conclusion I came to is that I would wait awhile and listen. I would listen for the voices of other people who I knew weren't far off. This got me thinking of how often when we feel lost, alone, or afraid we can listen to voices, (now for those of you sarcastic folk don't go thinking , "Great , Noel's really gone and lost it now, telling us to listen to voices) the voices of those who know their way and are not lost and maybe have been down this road before. After all this thought of being lost, I was tired of pretending like I was lost and also I could hear the voices pretty strong and close by so I decided to go find them.
I think in the end that is all we have to guide us in this journey we call life, the voices that have gone before us that have left their wisdom to try and help us avoid the mistakes they have made. They call out to us in all different ways and in all different settings but when we are lost sometimes I don't think we take the time to stop, and listen.