Entangled

Lately, my life seems all tangled up.
When I solve one problem, another pops up.
I feel like I’m stuck in a dark hole,
and my usual ways of extricating myself from this place aren’t working.
If I simply change my perception, will my outlook change?
I’d like to think I can do this: walk through darkness into The Light
and find myself in a place where my view might still be a bit askew,
but opens up enough for me to no longer feel trapped and helpless.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Resurrection Expectation

Easter is over for this year,
having just passed,
but it always conjures up excitement in me.
I have an expectation that something marvelous,
unbelievable
and inherently mysterious
is about to happen.
And it always does.
The burning yellow orb of the sun
peeks above the horizon
reminding me I am alive!
Flowers throw open their petals with abandon shouting:
kiss me, sun!
Plants, presumed dead, gloriously reappear.
Resurrection is palpable.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Accepting Autumn

I went to Redwoods Monastery in Whitethorn, California at the brink of autumn instead of spring as I had done last year.
The drive up Route 1 from Fort Bragg to Leggett was the same: glorious.
I was again greeted with fresh flowers in my room.
But the fields were no longer bursting with wildflowers.
They were mown and dry, yet beautiful in their own right.
Skeletons of last year’s leaves were exposed.
Shed wild turkey feathers presented themselves at every turn.
Leaves were changing; trees were dropping fruit.
Because the ground was dry, I could venture into places I hadn’t been before.
Yet some things were the same:
the structures themselves.
We are all changing, all growing older, all finding new parts of us exposed we thought were hidden. Old wounds. Flaws. Our deepest selves.
Spring is beautiful — yes — but perhaps we are ready for fall.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Open Aging

We all age.
Aging is a fact of life.
If you don’t age, it means your life was cut short,
unable to fully blossom.
I can shake my fist at God and rant,
I can curl up into myself and become antisocial,
I can try to hide my withering edges
or I can accept what is.
God has a plan for “this old house.”
The plan doesn’t require me to be spry
or attractive,
it simply asks that I be open to guidance, love and grace.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Refreshment

The Cloud Peak Wilderness is an area within the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming that is wilder, higher, plus more restrictive to preserve its pristine quality. You must register to enter and abide by the rules governing its land.
You might think this would scare off visitors, but parts of it are actually high-use areas for day hiking. One of these is Sherd Lake.
Getting to the parking lot is rather easy and doesn’t require a special vehicle, although we noticed SUVs and trucks far outnumbered two-wheel-drive cars. Basically, a pudge like me can make it into the wilderness without extreme effort.
However, once you hit the first lake, all bets are off.
My husband and I made it to 9,000 feet before our puffs became huffs, which then became us sitting on rocks guzzling water and snarfing trail mix.
Gazing at blooming water lilies
and underwater plants offered respite from trickling sweat.
Our break allowed us to refocus on the beauty, clean air and marvels of creation, like wild penstemon.
Once refreshed by drinking in both physical and spiritual nourishment, we were ready to hike back.
Was it easier going because it was downhill, or because we felt spiritually satisfied?
I’d like to think it was a bit of both.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

The Upside of a Sack Lunch

For one, you can eat your sack lunch anywhere, even along a refreshing snow-melt stream in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming.
Of course, you have to hike up there first. “Up there” is about 8,000 feet, which is no small feat when you are living day to day at 500 feet above sea level.
I’m not saying I wasn’t up for the challenge, even in my slightly older, slightly pudgy state. It helps to have a husband who carries the actual lunches, water and miscellaneous gewgaws on his back.
As a person who lives for shade, the open meadows were beautiful, but sweltering. When I checked the temperatures before I left, the prediction was 90 degrees every day wherever we were headed.
So I simply braced myself and wore a cooling scarf — a neat doodad with swelling beads that you can dip in a freezing cold stream — which helped keep my body temperature in check.
When we reached an enticingly shady spot, we sat on a rock and ate our sack lunches. I’m quite sure the glorious view enhanced the tuna salad and made it taste that much better.
My husband cajoled me onto a rickety bridge with promises of a better view. Naturally I succumbed, and he was correct.
Hiking back to the trailhead I felt God winking at us through snow-capped peaks,
dramatic clouds,
charming flora
and enchanting fauna.
As with all remote hiking and lunching, we tried not to leave our mark. But a mark was definitely left on us.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Refreshed by Waterfall Artistry

I enter from above the waterfall at Russian Gulch State Park, passing a small deep basin of water, deceptively still, before it rushes down a rock face.
Rough steps wind down a serpentine trail to a simple wooden bridge.
Alone on the structure I gaze at beads of water suspended in air as they drop down to a shallow pool.
Magnificent redwoods and firs have fallen to create thick tightropes on which to walk if you have that type of daring blood coursing through your veins. My blood is only partially daring; or is it foolhardy?
Some logs are definitely off limits.
But I am adventurous enough to explore underneath them where someone has dropped a line of Andy Goldsworthy-style orange peels. The out-of-place color plays off dark leaf shadows and a checkerboard current.
My artist’s eye notices lime green reflections dancing above splinters of wood resting on the sandy silt.
The bridge’s shadows have the feeling of a monochromatic abstract painting. Art is everywhere.
On rare hot days I’m willing to unlace my hiking boots, wade into the coolness and be sprayed by the falling water.
But today is brisk and I’ve finished wandering. Time to head back, refreshed and ready to continue the day.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Bored?

I like ritual.
I like routine.
I can do the same basic thing over and over without getting bored.
Every moment that passes means I am not the same person I was a second ago. And neither is anyone else. Or anything else, for that matter.
So when I take a walk on the same path I’ve travelled numerous times, everything is new.
The millipede was traveling perpendicular to that root a moment ago, but is now elegantly parallel to it.
The trillium’s leaf was whole yesterday but now has a hole munched through its emerald skin.
Tiny bits of redwood dust have just fallen from a decaying tree trunk as a pill bug emerged, creating a slightly different shape to the log.
The sorrel has one less bloom because I just ate its lavender lusciousness.
I don’t go by the adage: If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
For if you look closely enough, almost everything is a tiny bit different from its seemingly clone-like counterpart, especially in nature.
The next time you feel bored, just look around. You’re no longer the same “bored” person you were when you had that thought. Perhaps you’ll notice something you’ve looked at for years and see it in a new way. And if you don’t, that’s fine. Because by now you’re already somebody else.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Alone?

Uncertainty often makes me feel off kilter.
Am I alone in this feeling?
Or are there others who feel separated, even though they are together on the edge?
I can feel lost in the midst of others.
A loneliness I am choosing, yet not choosing at all.
Why can’t I join in?
Connect?
Be part of a group?
I feel closed.
But what if I were to open?
Look around and see others are like me?
Perhaps I wouldn’t feel adrift.
I could take root.
And grow.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my most recent daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.