Terrified and bleating, the fawn zigzagged around fallen logs and boulders with Sadie at its heels.

“SADIE! COME RIGHT NOW!”

Sadie ignored all my yells to come. Every dormant English sheepdog gene was activated in Sadie’s sheepadoddle brain as she gave chase. Hearing her offspring’s agonized cries, a doe leapt from the shadows of the forest, chasing after Sadie.

It was like the pages of a children’s picture book where more and more characters were added to the line-up.

Run, run, as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man. But instead of a fleeing cookie, it was the fawn. The dog. The doe. And me.

The first three bolted down the side of the mountain toward the main road with me screaming and running to catch up.

I didn’t catch up.

I turned a corner, and they were gone. No bleating. No trampling hooves. No barking dog. Just me and the pine trees.

“SADIE!

I texted Kevin in a panic, picturing the daunting task of trying to find our dog in the wilderness. I also knew a pair of mountain lions had recently been seen in the area. The Mormon Lake FB page constantly has posts of lost dogs who have done exactly what Sadie had done—gone chasing a deer or a herd of elk—pets who had never been seen again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a flash of orange in the underbrush. Sadie’s orange bandana! I called her name, and she came running, tongue out, tail wagging, with her bandana around her neck. I had never been so thrilled to hug my furry delinquent.

Later, when I recounted the story to Kevin, declaring Sadie WOULD NEVER AGAIN LEAVE THE CABIN AS LONG AS SHE LIVED, my husband quietly reached over and touched my arm.

“The miracle of this story is that she came back to you. Sadie found her way home,” he said.

Kevin was right.

At the end of the day, this is the truth in the story. Because haven’t we all had that moment, when we threw caution and wisdom to the winds and ran off, chasing something that was not in our best interest? Haven’t we all been the prodigal or the lost sheep in the Gospels, in Luke 15?

Aren’t you grateful for the heart of a Father who runs to us, embraces us, and welcomes us home?

That is the miracle of all our stories.

*****

As always, keep scrolling for more stories, poems, photos, and two giveaways! Thanks to all of you who helped caption the final photo!

Welcome to Wonder*FULL August.

INVITATION 1

Your Soul’s Backpack

To all of us, finding our way home:

A verse to carry in your soul’s backpack:

“So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off,

his father saw him

and was filled with compassion for him;

he ran to his son,

threw his arms around him

and kissed him.” Luke 15:20 NIV

INVITATION 2

Use a Cyanometer

Did you know that the sky has its own color scale?

It’s like going to the paint store and picking out all the blue chips!

In 1789, Horace Bénédict de Saussure, along with Alexander von Humboldt, invented the cyanometer, a simple tool made of 53 shades of blue, ranging from white to almost black.

While climbing Mont Blanc—the highest mountain in the Alps at 15, 774 feet—de Saussure noticed the color of blue deepened as he reached higher elevations. Wanting to measure the blueness, he created the cyanometer using paper swatches dyed in increasingly deeper shades.

Using this tool, he measured the top of Mont Blanc to be blue to the 39th degree. Alexander von Humboldt took his cyanometer on adventures to the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, and to South America. In 1802, Humboldt ascended Chimboarzo in the Andes. He measured the darkest blue ever recorded—the 46th degree of blue.

I printed my own cyanometer off Google and experimented with documenting the color of the sky. I have yet to use it on top of a mountain but stay tuned!

Hint: fun activity with kids and grandkids!

INVITATION 3

Consider the Beauty Where You Live

Three recent moments of beauty where I live:

INVITATION 4

Two Giveaways!!

Congrats to Maureen H. and Kitty W. for winning last month’s giveaway.

The day after the news that the Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed the historic lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I received my author copies of the book, Beloved by His Faithful. My story in the volume is about a hike Kevin and I did from the South to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, known as the Rim-to-Rim hike.

Do you ever find yourself so focused on caring for the needs of others that you neglect your own need for rest and care? This story is for you, along with many other stories written by gifted authors.

Hardcover books are available now on the Guideposts website. AUTHOR15 gets you a 15% discount on that site only. A wide release paperback version for Amazon and other bookstores is available Sept 9.

And now for a second giveaway!

I am thrilled to offer a fiction book by my writing colleague, Cheryl Grey Bostrom. She has won numerous awards for her other novels. Incredible writing. Deep stories. Complicated characters.

Here’s my review in which I give the story 5 stars:

Secrets. Lost history. A missing past. The river keeps many things from the main character, biologist, Hildy. I found myself hoping she would find all that matters on the banks of that same river as I turned the pages. Beautiful Story.

The story is also set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Win. Win. Win.

LOCAL EVENT

I have enjoyed meeting friends and family at the Chandler Museum to give them a personal tour of the Ceangal/Connections exhibit. Interested? Let’s see what we can do! The museum is also holding an artist panel discussion on August 14 at Noon (PT) with our Irish counterparts (hopefully) attending via Zoom. We are still confirming details but look for more info here!

The Chandler Museum exhibit has been extended until August 24. I would love to have you come see the work of eight artists, photographers, filmmakers and writers. My desert poetry is on display.

Location: Chandler Museum, 178 E Commonwealth Ave, Chandler, AZ 85225. The museum is always free!! (Closed on Mondays.)

*****

VINTAGE TYPEWRITERS:

All Photos are by Lynne Hartke, unless otherwise noted. All photos are at Mormon Lake, AZ unless indicated.

• Railroad bed with me, Kevin, and Sadie

• Wild blue flax

• Fawn sketch from by journal

• Sadie safely home at our cabin.

• Sunflower with Mormon Mt in the background.

• Cyanometers, 3 photos.

• North Rim Grand Canyon collage

• Golden Mantle ground squirrel

• Poison milkweed, aka horsetail milkweed

• Two book memes

• Chandler Museum Ceangal exhibit.

• Vintage typewriter collage

• Rock pigeons at Gilbert Riparian Preserve.