Pilgrimage to Paradise, Paradise Found

"Paradise is where I am."--Voltaire. This quote printed on the backside of a bookmark inspired me to consider...What landmark, street, or place that I encountered in Laos that felt like my idea of paradise? I thought I discovered it today at Tat Fan and Khon Phapheng Falls. Tat Fan is one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Laos. The twin streams of the Huay Bang Leing plunge out of dense forest and tumble down more than 120 meters. A path leads down to the top of the falls and lush verdant greens burst with a rainbow of brightly colored tropical flowers, rendering me awestruck and speechless. Truly a rainforest cafe for the senses.

Following our visit to Tat Fan, we picnicked at the mouth of the Khon Phapheng Falls, the largest and most awesome waterfall along the Mekong. It is a pure, unbridled aggression of millions of liters of water crashing over cascades of rock and into Cambodia by the second. Since our visit was in the middle of July, and thus the rainy season, the Mekong was at full flood, which hit me full force and left me drenched after trekking the rickety network of bamboo scaffolds on the rocks next to and over the falls. The spectacular sight and the force of its spray was hurricanic, stealing my breath and compelling me to marvel at the faith of the atheist in believing there is no God.

But then I considered the wonder of a child at the "mundane" miracles of the everyday: the iridescent bubble floating up from a bathtub, the militant march of the ants across the tasty and potentially treacherous terrain of the kitchen table, and I wonder if paradise is omnipresent, ever accessible to those whose eyes are open to it. But just after I thought I had determined its whereabouts, I reread the latter half of the sentence, "where I am." And I began to wonder... Is paradise a setting or a state of being? Is it a destination or a decision? An altitude or an attitude? Is paradise a place of peace/serenity within your inner self that remains constant in a galaxy of change? In a constellation of happiness, exhilaration, friendship, love, disenchantment, abandonment, rejection, war, suffering? Having finally perceived its true meaning, I experienced an epiphany. I AM. The last two words in Voltaire's multifaceted statement were the Hebrew word for GOD. The name He by which He refers to Himself. It was at this moment that lightning struck and fire came to down for heaven along my Damascus Road pilgrimage through Pakse, and God spoke to me through Voltaire.

Paradise is not a geographical location, or universal creation, or a state of mind or being--although it can encompass all of these. Paradise is where God is. His holy habitation--in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Psalm 139, specifically verses 7-12). Paradise has nothing to do who or where I am and everything to do with who and where I AM. And although paradise is not about my narcissistic environment or experience, I find that I am most fulfilled--most at paradise--when I place myself in His Presence. “You will show me the path of life, In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).