Christian Living

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From Fairytale to Focus

I felt like Cinderella the night my Prince Charming invited me to celebrate our first wedding anniversary in the Colorado Rockies.

“Hey, whadda ya think? Let’s go camping – primitive camping. My old college roommate lives up near Grand Mesa. He said we could spend a few days on his dad’s property. Should be wild and quiet and very private…”

No glass slippers here, just the promise of romance: sunsets over snow-capped peaks, guitar music by firelight.

“Sure, let’s go!”

My spirits soared as the car crawled higher and higher up the Colorado mountainside toward the wild, overgrown, rocky destination promising to be the perfect camping site. “Hope the funny feeling in my head will go away when we get up there,” I muttered. I thought the cool, dry mountain air might help relieve what seemed almost like stuffiness – presumably the onset of a summer cold.

I reeled at every switchback, my stomach flip-flopping as we zig-zagged our way to the high country - my Cinderella dreams growing all the while. Maple trees deferred to aspens that introduced scraggly pines clinging to nothing but boulders. Delighted with our impending adventure, it seemed we were headed toward endless discovery.

“Do you hear crickets?” I asked, suddenly aware of a constant chirping reminiscent of hay fields back in Indiana.

“Are you kidding, they’d never make it up here. There’s nothing for them to eat! Why?”

I figured the cold was getting to me; my head must be gummed-up somehow, even though I’d not noticed a sore throat or cough or single sniffle. “Oh, I hear chirping noises…like crickets. Tons of them.”

We climbed higher and higher. The chirps continued.

“Do you think the higher altitude could create fake sounds in my head?” I finally asked, more than a little miffed by the noisy intrusion.

“Nah, fat chance – pressure, but not noise. “

We finally arrived and were greeted by a wind-swept, lonely serenity. It seemed a privilege to feel so close to the sky, to quietly slip into nature and join the wildflowers next to a bubbling mountain brook.

The next few days crept along lazily. Hours were filled with hiking excursions, hugs and stories around the campfire, and dreams of our future together. Every evening we brazenly stripped off our jeans and sweatshirts all the way to innocent nakedness right next to the base of a bubbling waterfall in order to shower in its pure but frigid, pulsing jets. The huge, inky sky full of stars, unhindered by artificial lights, spoke to my Cinderella heart: dreams do come true.

“Hey, I just made a wish on that star – did you see it, the shooting star, over there?”

“Awesome! Better not tell me your wish, huh, or it won’t happen…..”

And so it went. We tasted heaven for those few days of our infinite lives. But at the same time my body was telling me this really wasn’t heaven. In fact, I about went nuts internally.

In the midst of near bliss, the cricket chirps never left me even though my cold never developed. “Hmmm,” I thought periodically, “these crazy noises are so…so odd.” But it wasn’t until I got home that the reality sunk in: the chirps weren’t going anywhere.

Not only did the cricket noises remain upon my return to everyday life, they demanded more and more attention as time went on. There would be many times in the coming when I’d want to reclaim the subtle noises I experienced on our camping trip, since they only became increasingly louder over time – more like tinkling bells that eventually escalated to mimic whistling screams.

When we recently celebrated our 34th anniversary, I remembered the camping trip, my Cinderella trip. A dream come true in some ways, the trip also ushered a personalized version of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” into my life – a thorn named tinnitus.

But wait! Is Cinderella’s life supposed to be thorny? What about her magical rescue; her fairy godmother? What about the glass slipper and “happily-ever-after” promises?

I’ve learned how even Cinderella must endure pruning at the hand of the Lover of her soul. She must focus on life from God’s perspective, and be taught about the limitless measures of His grace. A cricket serenade on the way to my Cinderella castle was the beginning of my fleshly “thorn” yielding suffering, patience, endurance and eventually my prize: hope.*


* “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 3b-4

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