Do the next right thing

Reflections from my wanderings this week... 

The place(s) where I take all my questions. Sometimes the answers are given, but more often I leave them in His care and wait.

Keep walking. One foot, then the other. Don't give up. 

Worry robs today of it's joy and energy and gives nothing to tomorrow. 

If it is a rocky path I am asked to follow, I shall find good shoes and strong companions to walk with me in this life. 

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.” C.S. Lewis

The stories behind pictures are often quite different than we suspect. In the following two pictures, the boys were hanging as far out of the car as possible to avoid the stench of dead, rotting flesh that was hanging off Bumpy after she rolled in a carcass in the woods. 

When I encounter various people, it is important to remind myself that the picture before me does not tell the story. It is just a picture. Assumptions are unwise. 

Hard times come for each of us in life. As we walk through it, we may be devastated by it, and rightly so. But, we may (simultaneously) find it is the pathway to unfathomable joy, in His severe mercy. 

The mountains declare... and I stand in awe and reverence. 

Love is only limited by the box we put it in. Great love I see daily and it astounds me. 

 I must obey in the thing that lies before me today. I must simply do the next right thing. 

Great gifts come to us in many forms... some are easier to recognize than others. 

I think we are each deeply alone. We may build a life alongside others, marry, have lasting forever friendships, raise (the most amazing!) children, grow old alongside those we cherish the most; but inside of each of us I think there forever remains a hunger for something. Completion? The fulfillment of that which we have spent our lives working out? I don't know what it is, but there seems to be an unsatisfied emptiness that leaves each of us even just slightly hollow. It gives us a longing that we most often can't explain. It may be part of what drives us as the human race to live fully, wholly, desperately, and not give up.  

I open my eyes and see the mountains, valleys, streams, deserts, and everything in between; they are a reflection. And I find abundant joy and hope in what I see. 

The simple moments in each day are often the most profound. 

I will hold these treasures in my heart.