First Blog ever!! Does it even get spelled with a Capital "B"? Not sure, BUT, because it's pretty special... I will give myself the freedom alloted writers and poets, or is it just poets??

Time to get ready for work, but I really want to start this today, tell about my walking experience this morning. We'll start simple, not working the mind too much or much less the pondering button in my head.

Took a lot of work to get me out the house this morning! Haven't walked in almost two weeks... if you don't count the hiking done in North Carolina, or all the walking done at work, up and down the hallway in CVICU. Had to talk to myself as if I really was two people - the lazy one inside, who just knew it was too hot to walk already, being it was 82 degrees at 8 am, and the motivated, outwardly one who had just stepped on scale and discovered the extra pound and a half already, and could tally up all the forbidden foods she had eaten over this memorable long weekend. The explosion on the scale was soon to come!

Getting dressed real fast made the inside one get quiet, stepping out the door armed with the GPS for mileage and time, disarmed her entirely. Ahh... it was good to walk again!

Took the back way, as I call it, and when I arrived at the supermarket, headed down the newly "discovered" extra 3.2 mile street alongside it. Tried to keep the 4 mile/hr pace, tried to stay focused praying for my family, kept wandering inside to the past weekend, back to prayer, back to feeling happy and grateful, back to praying, while trying to focus on my surroundings as well.

A Utility truck at the very end of Williamsburg Road made me uneasy to walk past it just to touch the fence Curt and I touch as we turn right around and head home as fast as we can.  The forest runs alongside of it, where we saw, or rather Curt saw, the deer coming out of the forest first time we walked this road.

No big deal, I thought, I'll just take a left down this block and see if it loops back to the main road, if not, I'll turn it right around and add some mileage to my first walk back.

 Walking, I thought of the "detour" taken and wondered of the ones He places before us to cause us to walk on the right path. I wondered if I would be made aware of why the detour, or, if as most of my detours, I just have to KNOW it was the road to take but don't end up really knowing "why". As I  stirred this thought around and around in my head, my mouth flew open when I saw two Sandhill Cranes ( they usually come in twos, you know, lifetime partners!) standing so pretty and proud in the yard to my left! They saw me and I kept the pace and wondered if I would cause them to fly out, run, be scared... but I began to talk softly to them and lo and behold, they stood tall and proud, eyed me all the way, and stood their ground... then I wondered if they were known to attack... silly me, they look too proper and regal for that kind of behavior. As I marvelled that I now knew why the "detour", a turkey stood just a few feet away, in the same yard, also eyeing me sideways, but right alongside the house was his "partner" and then another one! Five big birds standing as ornaments in this lady's front yard! I exhaled one big long " You are amaaaaaaazing!!!" as I passed them, and quickly anticipated another surprise... greedy that I am! Got to the end of the street and turned left, onto Scenic Drive... SURELY I would find a lake, maybe a swan or an alligator, something truly scenic! Another story!

Nothing.. can't even remember a single detail of any of the houses passed... I chuckled at the name of the street and how deceiving I found it. By this time another mile had been tagged onto my original intended distance. Street ahead had diamond shaped DEAD END sign before I even got to it... and wasted my precious time on it. Quick turn to the left revealed another such sign and road... and I marveled at how easy it was to follow the right path with all the clear cut signs along the way. Then the ponderings started... and I wondered if God also made it so clear to me as I walked through life, or did I ignore the signs, not see them, or was intended to walk all the way for whatever reason or lesson... Was His Word a light onto my path, even as I walked the dead end streets? Yes, He never leaves me, was my next thought. But the satisfaction of knowing I was on the right path made my life seem so simple, so easy, uncomplicated... was this the way life was meant to be as long as I was on the right path?

I marvelled at the strength of the frail, more than slightly bent old lady walking her small brownie dog. Upon spotting me, Brownie  jerked around and pulled so hard at his leash I pictured me rescuing her off the sidewalk while being nipped by her dog! I noticed the leash wrapped several times around her wrist then, and she had been able to stand as straight as she could,as she smiled and saaid, " He's just saying 'Good Morning to you!'" I said good morning back and laughed.

There were the two older ladies chatting with their little dogs at their sides, and when the Chihuahua saw me, he started to spin like a top, or a maddened ballerina, round and round he went, so many times, I just had to laugh out loud... the look on the other lady's face was precious as she wondered what had made that dog so crazy. Had to be there!

Close to home and with five miles already under my belt and the heat intensified, I was tempted to cut through the Baptist church parking lot, but I wondered if there was also a lesson in keeping to the "straight and narrow", no deviations, no shortcuts, I might miss something... so I looked closely, all around me, then wondered if the lesson was simply that, to be disciplined and thorough, to complete the task... and I giggled at my wanting to see instant reward for "good behavior".

Nearer still, passed the Guest House now, I looked up and it was then that I noticed the many squiggly swirly wispy curvy clouds, all across the sky, as when a plane writer writes JESUS LOVES YOU in the sky, which seems to happen quite often around here. There was no plane in sight, and the "words" seem too scattered apart, as if he had written it all across the sky, from one end to the other, and the barely visible breezes had spread the words and streeeetched them... but I saw it... JESUS LOVES ME...written just for me, and seen by my heart's eyes. Wow!! I saw it! My eyes had been open!

What a beautiful way to start walking, and seeing, and feeling!!! Not bad for a Monday Morning!