Looking back at this little cabin, built on the Navajo reservation in northwestern New Mexico, I'm reminded "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".  In my life I have been rich, though I usually have failed to acknowledge that fact.  Standing on my front sidewalk this morning and enjoying the feel of warm raindrops falling on my face ... I realize the richness of my life.  This photograph was taken from the from porch of the home of a woman named Martha, who had lived in a one room cabin with no running water and no electricity with her children ... for over forty years.  This is a barren land ... there is no garden ... the relief of rain is only a memory.  I am glad I was given opportunity to be a part of the rain that blessed Martha with a new house that has electricity and water.  I am rich ... so it is often difficult to see the desert that surrounds me.  And so I stand in the rain ... thanking GOD not only for the rain, but for eyes to see the desert and the cleansing reign of His Spirit that refreshes my soul.

Annual events

today I visited the dermatologist ... something I have done for the last several Septembers.  It is not necessarily something I look forward to, but it is necessarily something I need to do.  There are other things that we do only once a year - some of them under duress and others reluctantly, rather having the opportunity to do them more frequently.  Paying taxes or home insurance once a year is enough, but I could do Christmas or Thanksgiving more often.  On the other hand, Easter is only once a year, but it seems that when it has past I spend the remainder of the year planning toward, living toward, and looking forward to the next one.  But then in many ways ... Easter comes every day.  We simply don't always acknowledge it.  Looking back it has been almost a year to the day since I made a contribution to this spot.  So, I'm back again - anticipating that it will not be a  year before I return.  My writings stimulate my own thinking call me to be introspective and if someone else gains some insight or hope into this life in the process, then perhaps that is good.

My thoughts lately have been drawn back to Isaiah 35 again and again ... perhaps I'll go there again someday.

Perhaps tomorrow.

I can't wait 'til next year...