Month: April 2019

Day Seven of my Arizona journey.  Bittersweet, to say the least.  What a wonderful week, and  tomorrow I’ll be flying back to Florida, home for now, where so many I love live.  If I could only bring them all with me, it would be perfect!

Day Seven:  Almost Goodbye

This, my last full day here started out slow. I woke up sore and achy and feeling pretty punky. My cold was getting the best of me.   But after a cup of green tea, some scripture reading, and a couple of ibuprofen, life began to look up again.

I was able to go for a nice walk/run about mid-morning when the sun was trying to peek out of the clouds, and I decided it was time, this being my last day here and all, to go to a restaurant for lunch. I sat outside with a book, re-reading one of my favorite gothic romance novels written some decades before, and while I waited for my meal, a little bird kept me company. He would hop close to me, then fly off up to the ledge, then back down to the floor, then back to the ledge. It was obvious he was used to getting his meals there. I left him some crumbled tortillas.

The mountains looked closer today. Maybe because it was cloudy? I’m not sure, but they looked extra awesome, and at my outside table at the restaurant I had a wonderful view of them and the famous fountain when it went off. I didn’t get a chance to drive through the Superstitions this time, but it’s on my list for my next visit. Did I say visit, or did I mean permanent move? Fountain Hills puts on a super cool art fair here every November and February with over 500 vendors over a four day weekend. There are some truly great artists who bring their works of art to sell. Paintings, sculptures, jewelry, art made from discarded metal, water fountains, and a whole lot more. It takes hours just to walk the fair and appreciate what each artist’s booth has to offer. Maybe I’ll come back in November. February isn’t warm enough.

I spent some time tweaking my latest book chapter today, and I’m really pleased at the amount of progress I’ve been able to make this week. My next step is to begin reviewing each chapter, expanding where it’s needed, editing, then organizing them so the order makes sense.

I guess I haven’t said what kind of book I’m writing, have I? It’s a type of memoir, but not entirely. I know my life story isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s mine and some of the lessons God has taught me might just be helpful to somebody else.

Being a writer for newspapers and a magazine, I’ve learned a lot about writing other people’s stories. I’ve learned how to conduct interviews and take that information to put together a factual, and, hopefully, interesting story that will pull in the reader and leave them happy to have read it. And maybe even changed for the better.

This, my first book, will be a huge learning experience I know. I’ve already written some of a second book, so what I learn from this process will help me in the next one.

This entire week has been such a wonderful gift from God, it’s hard for me to find the proper words to thank him, but I am so very thankful.

My flight leaves for Florida on Saturday. Back to work on Monday, and back into my routine. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about how this all started as I wrap up my phenomenal week in my favorite place ever.

On to the next chapter!

Day Six of my Arizona journey.  Sunshine, hiking, and gorgeous views.  So thankful for all of it!

Day Six: Exploring

There was almost no wind when I got up at 6am-ish, so I knew it was going to be a great morning for a hike. This time I headed over to Adero Canyon, a new trailhead on the border of Fountain Hills and Scottsdale at the foot of the McDowell Mountains. It was a sunny day, cool-ish, and comfortable for walking around in the desert.

You had to snake your way back there about 2 ½ miles off Palisades Blvd and through a new upscale development going in.

I parked my car and headed to one of the trails. Adero Canyon is very nice with maps and shaded places to sit and even public restrooms. And safe. That was a plus.

I took tons of pictures and had a wonderful time! The trails were well marked and with varying degrees of difficulty. Overlook trail was just what its name implies – a fabulous overlook of Fountain Hills where you can see the Superstitions, The White Mountains, and Four Peaks and how they ring the town. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

One of my favorite things is to find plants growing out of rock. The life lesson contained in that one simple picture, for me, is affirming. I not only located some, but also came across boulders where the roots of these plants had eventually worked their way through the rock, pushing their way out and into the open air. If that’s not a lesson in perseverance and strength I don’t know what is.

Desert life isn’t easy and only the tough survive. When I think of the flower gardens I used to have in Michigan, and the plants here in the desert, I can’t help but wonder how long Michigan plants would make it. Probably not even a month. But, to be honest, Michigan plants weren’t designed to live in the Arizona heat. And cactus plants weren’t designed to live in the heavy, damp soil of Michigan. They were designed to live in sand with scant moisture.

Which is a good lesson about how each of us is different and God-designed to serve him where he has placed us. He gives us what we need to accomplish his goals.

I love the tenacity of the desert where each plant and critter who lives there understands the daily struggles they face. I love their ability to take the worst and make it beautiful and lasting.

By the time I arrived back at my condo, I was exhausted, headachy, and sore. The desert isn’t for the faint of heart. But I’ll be back soon. I promise.

One last full day here and it’s back to Florida. It’s been a real blessing to be able to spend a week here in my favorite place on earth.

When can I come back?

Day Five of my Arizona journey was spent mostly inside.  It was a blustery day and quite cool, and since I was also working through a cold, I decided I could afford one day of inside time.

Day Five: An inside day

It’s bound to happen when you’re on vacation. You get sick and/or have a bad weather day, right? Well, apparently my grandson Noah kindly gave me his cold right before I left, and yesterday was a good day to stay inside since I was doing some hacking and coughing. No walking or hiking, although I did drive up to the Ballantine Trailhead like I mentioned I was planning to do in my last post.

Even though it was quite windy I figured that I would at the very least have a scenic drive there and back. So, a little after 7am I headed up the Beeline. I was right, of course. The views were phenomenal and I reveled in them as each passing mile brought me closer to my turn-off.

Then, I ran into a snag. As I pulled into the small dirt parking area of the Ballantine Trail, there was an old van with New Jersey plates already parked there very close to the entrance of the trailhead. Hmmmm… I also saw some movement in the back of the van, but no one about outside that I could see. If it were a newer vehicle, I’d just figure an early bird like me was wanting to get a head-start on the day. But it wasn’t a newer van, it was probably about 15 to 20 years old. And full of stuff. Almost like someone was living out of the van. My fight or flight antennae began to perk up as I looked around more carefully. I got out, locked my rental car, and walked toward the trailhead right behind the van. Made me uncomfortable, let me tell you.

There was low fencing blocking the entrance to the trailhead, and, for me, that was all I needed to get my buttsky out of there. And that’s what I did.

But the views, as I said, were fantastic, so, no worries.

I stopped at the grocery store and then at a hair salon to make an appointment to get my hair done.

Back at the condo, I spoke with a lender who specializes in condo loans, getting some excellent information to help me figure out just what is my best plan of action.

While I spent the rest of the day indoors, I finished writing a short devotional I had started a couple of days before.  In my online writing class with Flourish Writers, Jenny and Mindy are wonderful at instructing and steering you in the right direction for writing inspirational stories. I used some of their suggestions, and am pleased with my first, although short, devotional.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed meditating and praying on the scripture and researching.

Here it is:

Malachi 3:16-18

Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. “They shall be mine,” says the LORD of hosts, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.”

Every time I read this passage of scripture it arrests me. I come to a full stop, back up, and read it again. And then again.

I love the way Chuck Smith, who was the Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, defines what the fear of the Lord means. “The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… The fear of the Lord is not a phobia type of fear that debilitates a person… But the fear of the Lord is a reverential awe as we stand in the presence of His greatness, of His glory, of His majesty, and of His power. We think of the greatness of the God who created this vast universe. We think of the wisdom of God who created all of the life forms, and we just sort of stand in awe of that greatness and power, and wisdom. That’s what the fear of the Lord is.”

Standing in awe of just who he is. Every time I hike in the desert or walk along the beach, I am in awe. When I look closely at the individual plants, and how intricately they are formed, and when I gaze on the ocean and listen to the dull roaring of the water crashing and retreating in an unending cycle, I am in awe. God speaks to us of his power and majesty in nature when we take the time to listen.

Have you ever felt, though, there were times when God wasn’t listening? That your prayers went nowhere? Malachi tells us very clearly that when we ‘esteem his name’ he pays attention.

When we respect and honor who he is, and we spend time in fellowship with others of like mind talking about and reminding each other of how wonderful he is, what does he say – “they shall be mine.”

Matthew Henry, that well-known Bible commentator, said this: “I get so excited when I think of God speaking about me in the personal, possessive pronoun. When God speaks of me as, ‘My son, My child, My servant.’ Oh, how I love God to speak about me with a personal, possessive pronoun. I belong to Him; I’m His.”

Who doesn’t love the idea of truly belonging to someone so powerful and wise?

When I was a little girl, I had a diary and I wrote things that were important to me in that little book of secrets. When I was older, I wrote in journals. Now, as an adult, I use my computer and write blog posts. All of these are ways I remember. I remember people and things and occasions. I remember so I can never forget.

I don’t know about you, but I love the idea of God having a ‘book of remembrance’ with my name in it and everything about me. Because if he took the time to write it down, then it means something special, right? Do you bother to write down things you don’t care about? I don’t.

And because of our faithfulness and love and how we ‘esteem his name’ he makes us his. I belong to the Creator of the universe who looks upon me as a special treasure.

Let’s end with one more nugget of gold from Matthew Henry. “You are His treasure, Peter said, ‘for we are His peculiar treasure.’ The Lord speaks of you as a treasure that was hid in the field, that He bought the whole field that He might take the treasure out of it.”

I don’t deserve this exalted status, but I surely appreciate it.

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And thus ends Day Five of my Arizona journey. See you tomorrow!