“I reached the cave before the rest of the group, so I could sit in perfect silence and wonder at the beauty around me.”

On June School

by Luke Woolley (class of 2008)

In Tennessee last summer during June School, I discovered one of my favorite places in the world: Buggytop Cave. After the hour-long trek to the secluded cave, I sat and listened to the water trickling over the rocks. I reached the cave before the rest of the group, so I could sit in perfect silence and wonder at the beauty around me: the water flowing out of the cave, the rain hitting the leaves, the birds calling to each other as they hid beneath the cover of the trees. It was like I was a part of nature, and I didn’t have to disturb or destroy it, I just had to experience it—listen to it. When the others caught up, several of us went downstream. I ran along, jumping from rock to rock, trying to go as far as I could before it was time to leave. The experience was beautiful—nature was beautiful.

Once, I tried to vault off a log, and it broke, sending me into the rocks and water. Even the soft crack of the rotten log breaking and splash of the water as I fell were invigorating! That experience of wilderness, beauty, and me being a part of it has helped me to listen to the nature that God created, and to find that place that makes me see that I belong to something; before humanity lived in caves of steel and walked on paths of concrete, they lived in caves of stone and ran by roads of water.