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Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

nature

Drought

July 17, 2012

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but here, it’s hot. And dry. The grass is  more brown than green, and plants and gardens are slightly to moderately withered. I know this isn’t unique to our part of the world.

And it’s how I’m feeling about life.

© Rocky Reston | Dreamstime.com

Dry.

Cracked.

Withered.

Longing for refreshing rain.

Or as David, the psalmist, said:

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

I don’t know what it’s like to be without water. Or to thirst to death. I can, in part, imagine the agony.

© Steve Mann | Dreamstime.com

But my soul is thirsty. Sprinkles of rain aren’t enough. I need a downpour.

The psalm continues with praise and glory to God in the midst of the circumstances.

My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.

Amen, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Filed Under: faith & spirituality Tagged With: David the Psalmist, desert, drought, nature, rain, showers of blessings, spirituality, spiritually dry, thirst, water, wilderness

Saturday smiles: short and sweet edition

May 19, 2012

This week’s highlights:

Phil and I spent two nights in this rustic cabin in Cowan’s Gap State Park. It was a birthday/Mother’s Day/graduation/anniversary getaway trip. And it was perfect.

We hiked.

You might be able to smell the sweat. In this picture we had just climbed a trail marked “very steep.” Note to self: “very steep” in Illinois is not the same as “very steep” in Pennsylvania.

We encountered nature.

Cute, right? It might be poisonous, but the first one of these I saw, I thought it was a toy a kid had left on the trail. Then it moved.

Yep, I need to  be in nature  more often.

The snakes, however, I had no problem believing were real. I love seeing my husband watch creatures we don’t usually see. He thought the snakes were cool and wanted to observe. I wanted to tiptoe around and keep making progress on the trail.

None of this back-to-nature experience would have been possible without grandparents to watch the grandkids, so that is a MAJOR smile-maker this week.

And mountain views. Oh man, did we have mountain views.

I can live the rest of the week — maybe even the month — on this.

What are you smiling about this week?

 

Filed Under: Marriage, Saturday smiles, Travel Tagged With: camping, cowan's gap state park, hiking, mountain trails, nature, newts, rustic cabin, snakes, travel

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Photo by Rachel Lynn Photography

Welcome

Hi. I’m Lisa, and I’m glad you’re here. If we were meeting in real life, I’d offer you something to eat or drink while we sat on the porch letting the conversation wander as it does. That’s a little bit what this space is like. We talk about books and family and travel and food and running, whatever I might encounter in world. I’m looking for the beauty in the midst of it all, even the tough stuff. (You’ll find a lot of that here, too.) Thanks for stopping by. Stay as long as you like.

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