Back Home Normalcy

Since returning from almost 2 months in Canada and Michigan, I admit that it is nice to be back home. Home to my warm soft bed and a washing machine, home to all the conveniences of a house, and home to all my friends nearby.

The past few weeks I’ve been hiking a little more on the Buckeye Trail with my friend Liz. On one of our jaunts while hiking next to Caesar Creek we had the rare opportunity of seeing a buck in full rut chasing down a doe. I missed the video of her but 10 seconds after she crossed the path in front of us, this big boy came shamelessly crashing through the woods in hot pursuit. What an amazing thing to see! We considered how God is like this with us…pursuing us to show His love and to give us life! Maybe a stretch but it’s always my goal to find the lesson in everything!

Loving the cool mornings to get out and be able to hike and breathe fresh air into my lungs. Of course Brandon Lake’s song, Gratitude, came to mind as I inhaled going up the inclines and was washed over with a sense of so much thankfulness that I can do this!! Out of 1444 miles we have almost 14 miles under our belt now! I love it that Liz and I pick up trash along the way to beautify the BT for others! Honestly I’ve noticed more and more stiffness in my muscles in general and I’m not exactly sure why but hoping it’s just from the increased activity and not from some reason related to the drugs I’m on for cancer treatments. It’s been my experience that when something physical acts up that I can’t specifically explain, my brain likes to tempt me into thinking it’s something cancer related! Then I need to give it to God and remember these words from this song. In fact, if you read my blog from when I recently spent a month in the Canadian wilderness, you’ll remember that God literally calmed the waves and wind for me! He does miracles like this to remind me that His eyes indeed are on me through it all!

While John works on the WonderVan, I’m finding time for little projects like cutting firewood, sanding and staining a wooden bench, making Christmas gifts from Petoskey stones I got in Michigan, mountain biking our local trails, reading a good book trilogy called Out of Egypt by Connilyn Cossette and hiking with other friends. This is a photo special lady who shares a medical journey similar to mine where we can both say how grateful we are to God for giving us more time. I got to share my bench with her and we sat and worshipped together singing Gratitude!

I’m headed out tomorrow to visit my kids in Florida! Jonathan has been in Asia for the past 2 months and I can’t wait to give the guy a mama bear hug! My granddaughter turns 2 and this Granita will go celebrate being given the miracle gift of time with her which was one of my goals over 900 days ago!! So yes, I’m ringing my Gratitude Bell to thank God for all these precious sacred gifts that I do not take for granted!!