Home to Arizona again…..No leaves here. In California there are leaves everywhere right now, on the street, stuck to shoes, blowing in the doorway…..magical, messy, colorful, God’s artistry blowing down for us to enjoy. Watching my niece bury herself in dry dead old leaves, I saw them through her eyes….gleeful fun. The kind of fun we adults forget. We see mess, just imagine what could be lying in that pile raked along with all that color? But she sees only pure unadulterated joy. I let her bury me in it.

Reflection time now, sitting home. I let lose with a few tears. Tears that always must come when leaving ones you love. Knowing that it was helpful me being there, but also knowing when I leave the help goes away. My Mom and I said the same thing, we both started to give in to tears, and then prayed instead. Of course the only way, always and only. Prayer, our salvation, our lifeline when we are far apart.

So I pray….And as I pray, and feel sorrow breaking over me, I feel something else too. I see a scene in my mind of a summer day, boats bobbing off a green shore. A place where you would love to spend the Fourth of July. I see it, and I know it is God’s way of anchoring my soul to His peace.

I find, and feel, hope. It is good to be home, and I know that I am not so far away from loved ones there. We are bound together in prayer…..God’s hope.