Lady.......My newer jeep, I named Lady. She is a 2008 vs the 1995 manly jeep that I had named the Bob Marly. I had trouble letting go of the Bob Marly. I had formed a certain bond with it and just wasn't sure I wanted to part with it. However after jeeping with Lady in Moab, Utah I have thoroughly embraced Lady!!! She performed marvelously on one lane dirt and rock roads! She crawled over rocks, rode into the bottom of Canyon Lands National Park and climbed out of the canyon on a one lane, dirt and rock road through a series of switchbacks that was awesome and a little intimidating! I even drove her on some of these back roads over rocks in four wheel low and I have to tell you I was absolutely stoked!!! What a blast! Of course while I was driving I glanced over at Jon and saw that he was holding onto the handles over the roll bar with both hands. He said that it was just for support but I think he may have been just a little nervous. When I stopped driving, I made the comment that I didn't do too badly for a person totally blind in one eye......perhaps that was the reason for gripping so tightly to the handholds.
So I have totally let go of the Bob Marly. After all he has a good home with Jon's sister, Jonalyn. I think she renamed him Raven or something like that. So farewell Bob Marly or Raven and HELLO LADY!

I stood at the top of the hill after hiking back from the Crystal Mill looking below me at our beloved Crystal River and resting due to the climb in the soft snow. The soft snow added to the cardiovascular work load. So as I stood there, I could literally feel my heart pounding hard and a little elevated in my chest. I liked this pounding! I could actually feel the strength of my heart responding to my body's extra need for oxygen. Alive, alive, alive, that is what each beat said to me. I was surrounded by heavenly beauty, the air was crisp but not cold and with each deep cleansing breath and each pounding heart beat I felt alive.
By the grace of God and the prayers of His people I have thus far survived six brain tumors, all thankfully benign. I have one itsy bitsy, tiny iny, brain tumor left. I have named it Seven. And yes, you guessed correctly, it is because it is the seventh. We are not going to treat Seven at this point. It is so small we may never have to treat it. But one thing I have learned through the journey that I did not choose to make, life is simply as the scriptures teach, "like a vapor." Yet it is precious beyond measure! God made mankind from the earth and breathed life into him, into her!
So yes I may seem a little crazy on a hiking trail. I sometimes shout out YooWoo for no other reason than I am overwhelmed by God's creation. Yes I may sing the "Sound of Music" slightly off key at the top of my lungs. And yes I may push a hike a little further than intended just because I want to see what is just around the next corner or just because I have made some internal destination as my goal, but I love to feel that pounding of my heart that says you are alive! You are alive!
God saw me in my mother's womb so says the Psalmist. God knew my journey and has walked with me in the "valley of the shadow of death." And when I feel my heart pounding in the midst of His world, I know that I too am a part of His marvelous creation and that I am His beloved! My friend, so are you!

You're the hiker......I was volunteering at the Marble Charter School yesterday when a local gentleman came in. I reintroduced myself to him and he said, "Oh, you're the hiker." That sort of surprised me that he knew me as the hiker. We have really only met a couple of times. I responded after a minute of pause that I was more of a wanderer....
So today I took Starbuck on a short wandering walk in the Old Mill Park which was the site of the mill that carved the marble from our quarry and shipped it out by train in the early 1900s. We went there to avoid the mud from all the melting snow. We were on a hard-packed trail that I knew exactly where it led. I discovered another trail that led toward the river and we, being wanderers, decided to take it. After all, there was no chance of getting lost. The problem was that the snow-packed trail dead-ended.
Not wanting to backtrack, I saw that the trail back to the main mill site was just up a small hill and all we had to do was get past a little "unpacked snow." I looked at Starbuck and thought, how deep could it be? So off we went. Oh well, it was a little deeper than I expected. We were postholing (a term I have learned since moving here) up to my knees. So the little trek was slightly more involved for the both of us than I meant it to be. Not only were we knee deep in snow but underneath were baby trees and fallen buried logs. Once I fell in the soft snow and sank to my elbows. Now try getting up with all your shoes and mittens still in place. I started laughing and Starbuck looked at me as if I had lost my mind and had dragged her where she did not want to be!
The adventure was relatively short and I consoled myself by thinking that I would not need to get on the treadmill because my heart rate had been significantly raised with the new sport of postholing! However, once I was on the road with a much relieved Starbuck, I thought about our little wandering. How many times had God provided the nice snow-packed trail to lead me home only for me to wander off on some other trail just because it was shorter in distance and I did not want to backtrack? I pray that I will seek His path. But it was a comfort to know that I learned a little lesson about errant paths and that God often sees us through those choices as well.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make straight your path..." the writer of Proverbs

Meet Lady.......So before Christmas Jon sold the Bob Marly (my black 1995 Jeep) to his sister. I loved the Bob Marly. He had such character and Starbuck and I could just jump in and go without worry of dog hair or dirt. We would head off to the trail, go on an adventure and return home in the faithful black Bob Marly.
Jon had seen a jeep that a parishioner was selling and briefly asked me if I liked it back in the summer. I did like said jeep. Then close to Christmas he sells the Bob Marly so I was pretty sure the other jeep was going to show up. A couple of days before Christmas no new jeep. Christmas Eve night no new jeep. So......what was I going to drive with the Bob Marly gone? But alas one light weight present I opened contained a key with the word jeep on it. After a search I saw the new jeep parked in the church parking lot from our back deck.

So meet Lady, 2008 Wrangler 2 door, X edition trail rated jeep! She is green and has cloth seats instead of the plastic that the Bob Marly had. She is a 6th speed and shifts into all 6 gears smoothly. So compared to the Bob Marly she is somewhat genteel! Thus the name Lady. Sometimes I even call her the Green Lady.
Just one issue to straighten out with Jon. Number one, Lady is suppose to be mine and secondly, we live in Marble, a deep mountain location and Lady IS A JEEP. So I take her out for the first adventure. I put up the back seats to make room for Starbuck in the back and off we go to park below Daniel's Hill. Starbuck and I make a beautiful hike to Lizard Lake and back. I load her up and we return home. Jon was coming in from the church and I excitedly told him what we had done! He responded, "You took the Jeep and you took Starbuck?" Well yeah I did. He then responded, "You'll get the jeep dirty and get dog hair everywhere." I simply looked at him and said, "Well, Lady is a jeep and you said she was mine and SHE IS GOING TO HAVE TO MAN UP around here!

Jon, a friend and I saw American Sniper yesterday. I am not one to recommend movies but in this case I break that rule. If you want to remember what our troops have to endure and what their families suffer, then this very intense and sad film is a great reminder. It is not for children and it is difficult to watch but there are troops and families still out there who need our support and prayers! There is a world out there that needs our prayers!

Okay, so I live in a sort of "isolated" place in between two mountain wilderness areas........ when our monthly paper came out this month, there was an article by our very own mobile local vet who lives in Marble explaining that a couple of local dogs had an animal encounter! So yeah, that got my attention having a local dog myself. Her best guess was that they had been mauled by a mountain lion! Okay........
On Tuesdays I volunteer at our local Marble Charter school. I sub there as well. So during recess a Marbleite dropped by to warn the school that a mountain lion was in a tree by his gallery. So the teachers let the kids know and just pulled them a little closer in and avoided the trees around the school. Two things crossed my mind: one, I wanted to leave the school and try to get a picture of such an elusive animal and secondly, I truly do live in the heart of of a magnificent mountain location. Do not get me wrong, I would have tried to stay in the jeep to get my photo!!!
I walked home from school with snowflakes falling, mountains shrouded in clouds thinking what a wondrous world that the Almighty has placed me to live.... And I should say, I did keep glancing up in the trees just in case........

After church during our fellowship time God blessed me with a very special gift! I have a friend, a sister here in Marble who has been and continues to be on a difficult journey. She is battling ovarian cancer. She continues this journey with such courage and grace! She leans on God and shares the things that He is teaching her freely, blessing all those around her.
Today she was sharing with me about the songs she has been singing; she has a God-given angel's voice! She has been singing blues song and laughs as she completes them. She has been reading dramatically some things at the table in English or Southern accents and again laughing. She shared that this week she asked her husband to dance with her and they had no dance music so they started out slow dancing. Then she decided to sing Davidic songs and they did Davidic dances. She laughed and I laughed with her, picturing the dance and hearing the music. We were laughing like two young girls right there in the fellowship room right in the middle of her difficult journey!! I sense God is giving her freedom in the midst of her struggle; freedom to continue to sing, freedom to dance with her husband and freedom to laugh!
This sharing she did with me, this laughter she shared with me was a gift from Heaven itself. Perhaps we will all sing in Heaven. Perhaps we will all dance in Heaven. Perhaps we will all laugh in Godly joy in Heaven.
Praise to God and thanks to my friend, my sister for sharing with me today.......