Thoughts of a Mrs. Modern-Day Mountain Woman

Chapter 4: Always find your way to the rendezvous

What does rendezvous mean? To put it simply, it is a previously planned meeting of people. In the olden days, it was a place people gathered to swap supplies and stories. A rendezvous is an intentional gathering to refresh your soul and share, to learn and grow in strength and knowledge.

Ronald Reagan once said:

“A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and - above all - responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.”

Mr. Reagan realized that our world is looking to its leaders to bring us to a meeting of our destiny and in that, to show us how to be self-reliant, self-disciplined, and moral in all we do.

The mountain man of the past would meet at their agreed-upon location in the summer to trade supplies, meet and marry women (usually Native American women), and have a chance to visit and share details about the past year. Mountain men were self-reliant and self-disciplined. They had to be for the sake of survival. If they weren’t driven to trap and trade, they would have no income or warmth for the winter. Their life was not easy or intended for a weak man. They were attacked by Native Americans, bears, or other men. The weather and wilderness they traveled in and through was not for the faint of heart either. Maybe they weren’t all moral men, but they were strong men who were used to traveling distances, dealing with danger and living off the land.

Our world’s population is losing the self-reliance and self-discipline of our forefathers. The world today is easier in so many ways- modern conveniences, easy access to friends and entertainment, accessible stores, etc. In all of these conveniences, we distance ourselves from the original traits of survival; knowing what we need and how to get it from the land or from others. There are some who say you shouldn’t make things harder than they need to be, but there’s something to be said about not making things too easy. Our forefathers and the mountain men fought for what they believed in and continued to battle people and the environment who tried to stop them. When we make things too easy on ourselves, we lose the self-reliance and self-discipline that God designed us to have.

When the mountain men gathered for their rendezvous in the summer months, they had a chance to relax and refresh their spirits before heading back into the wilderness. When do we take the opportunity to refresh our spirits and learn from others? Do we take business trips, join a book club, or go to church and rendezvous with God? While our definition of a rendezvous today may be different from the mountain man’s rendezvous, it’s still vastly important to our well being.

Heading to a Rendezvous on the Stony Lonesome

For a mom of three young children, my rendezvous with God and other grown-ups is at church on Sundays. This is a time I desperately need to reconnect with God and other people who are like-minded. Getting three kids and myself ready and out the door on time, however, may be nearly as challenging as a mountain man getting himself to a rendezvous! Church gives me a sense of what is important in life, my faith in God. It builds upon my job here on earth, which is to share the gospel of Jesus and be a shining light to the world. Church helps me to be confident in my ability to be self-disciplined in living a good life, even in a world of depravity. Maybe your rendezvous in life isn’t church. Maybe it’s having the chance to slip away with friends in an evening to quiet your soul and refresh your mind. What matters most is that you take the time and make the effort to have a rendezvous, whether it be a big one like the mountain man had, or a small one like a family walk. Use the time to build yourself up and help yourself be self-reliant, self-disciplined, and moral. Focus on making yourself a shining light on a hill that will lead others to their rendezvous with destiny.