August Highlights and Reflections

Happy Last Day of August and Happy National Trail Mix Day! I think I am finally old enough so I don’t need to eat out all the M and M’s from the mix first. And I like dried cherries added to the traditional mix of nuts, raisins and chocolate.

At the end of each month, I like to pause for reflection before turning the page to the next.

Three outdoor highlights in God’s creation for me from August:

Highlight Number 1:

One muggy morning on a walk after a monsoon rain with our granddaughter, Juniper, age 2 1/2, we spotted a tiny Sonoran desert toad from her view close to the ground.

Sometimes wonder is found in a change of perspective.

Highlight Number 2:

This summer I have been working on witnessing 25 sunrises from 25 locations, which I wrote about in my last blog, The Every Day Miracle of a Sunrise and Why You Need It.

John Muir once wrote, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

I pray you are discovering your own every day places of beauty.

Highlight Number 3:

This month I hiked my first mountain after being diagnosed with adult asthma after having Covid in January. Seven months later, I am still in recovery. I hiked it with my best hiking friend, my husband, Kevin. We celebrated 40 years of marriage on August 29th.

After hiking some daunting peaks all round the world, I never thought I would be so thankful to find the breath to take a thirty-minute stroll up a mountain.

“To stand before both the difficult and the beautiful with an open heart will take some practice,” Macrina Wiederkehr wrote in Seven Sacred Pauses.

In such standing -- in the difficult and the beautiful -- I am still an amateur.

What are your August highlights? Where did you find yourself connecting with God?

And finally, what do you like in your trail mix?