Reflections

 

Scrolling through the articles on this blog, I am flooded with memories and passages.  Yes, I don't really generate traffic for my writing, but it is a record of my thoughts and feelings for the past 14 years.  What was I thinking in documenting so much? Perhaps, I really am a hidden writer at heart.  Hidden is the best term for me to use, as I frequently get waves of self doubt when I think that someone would actually read my posts and may even enjoy what I have to say . . . O well, here I ago again, putting myself out there!

2023 has been quite a year, starting with unbelievable cold winter weather and record snowfall here in our mountains of southern California.  It actually snowed in Alta Loma! And the snow that is still present even now in late May has graced our foothills and peaks with beautiful wild flowers, abundant water falls, and raging rivers.  Every week of hiking brings new images of beauty that weren't there a week ago.  "Green therapy" keeps me grounded, and brings me a reminder of God's provision for me.  This was to be another year of terrible drought for us in California, but storm after storm proved the Farmer's Almanac wrong.  Rains came, floods too, but dire water shortages have ceased.  God still has a say with the maintenance of his world.

Hiking through the Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, I thought about the adaptability of nature.  Even less than 100 years ago, that desert actually was more forest and cattle grazing land, and the old pumps and watering troughs are there to prove that point.  There's even Barker Dam situated in the middle of desert, with a watering hole that was still partially full. But with changes, the forest has lessened, and the land has become more arid, now the spidery Joshua trees have arisen.  A new kind of beauty is present.

I was surprised at the variety of flowers thriving in such dryness.  I especially was mesmerized by the brilliant blossoms on cactus.  Every step, every corner turned brought you face to face with gigantic mounds of granite boulders stacked on one another like a rubix cube.  In the crevices of the rocks or up from the sand were bouquets of red, yellow, lavender, and pink blossoms.  Some were very dainty and petite, but others were bolder in their display.  Playing on the floor of the desert were a family of chipmunk type critters, a snake scurrying quickly by, a horny toad lizard showing off his camouflage, a cotton tail rabbit and a host of sunbathing lizards. Life lived in an arid, adapting and ever changing environment.

Today, I am back home, just with pictures and reminders of these past days and years.  I am a part of history, having lived through the Pandemic of COVID19, and the world wide shutdown.  I have lived through a winter of unbelievable snowfall in a place that never has had that much snow.  Literally, homes were buried by "feets" of snow, taking even long term residents in those areas by complete surprise and shock.  But like this Spring that has outdone itself with magnificent splendor, I don't need to fear the future.  God's got this, be it storm, drought or flood.  His world adapts, and so can I.   I just need to keep on going forward, not clinging to the past or the what if's or should have's, that can plague me.  But instead go curiously into each new day, open to a dynamic, ever changing world.  Thank you Lord, that I have opportunity to embrace such goodness!