October Fest of Faith and Fun

October - A month of change, for better, for worse, for fun and especially for faith. As temperatures cool, breezes bring in colors, crackly leaves and pumpkins.


Fall comes to our special pond


The heat of summer is slowly losing it's sizzle and winter ice has yet to appear. It somehow brings sighs of relief and for a moment in time we can revel in the last vestiges of green and outdoor activities.


I just returned home from a walk today at the Fountain Park near here with Myrtle, our bully dogge.


Slow ditch water along an old dusty road




We walked along a ditch, full of muddy water that flowed along an old dusty road, shaded by large cotton woods and Elms.



An inviting perch to watch time flow slowly by



It was like a step back in time, when life was so much simpler and kids and adults alike were familiar with walking along in the heat and warm breezes and letting their minds wander and wonder.

I felt like I had stepped through a portal, back and away from the hustle and stresses of big city life.


My Portal into a simpler time

Away from our nations Wall street financial woes and from the worry of what is to happen in our lives in the next few years. Everything fell away for awhile and even though I carried an oxygen bottle on my back and I heard the familiar 'swihffft' sound with each breath I took, I felt the freedom even from my health issues and those of my son.


Myrtle and I walked totally alone for quite awhile, and then we suddenly saw a large, bushy, white feather or fluffy cattail waving along on the other side of the ditch in the tall grasses. Then as I paused and followed it with my eyes, it suddenly stopped and turned back and looked at me.


White Tailed deer watching us watch them


It was a white tailed deer with it's friends, curiously checking us out as we did them. I didn't even know white tailed deer were in Colorado, unless they've been transplanted. We have mule deer here, so I was not expecting to see a very large fluffy tailed deer prancing around our trails. I tried to get a picture but it was difficult, untangling it from my shoulder and removing the cap. The deer waited paitiently for me to get my camera open and on and almost focused, and then it suddenly took off. It was a nice surprise and made the walk even more enjoyable.

Ivy with berries and leaves
turning maroon colors

I enjoyed a big sigh, on our walk, from the stresses at home and I heartily encourage everyone to find an opportunity to get out away and as alone as possible to gulp in some of God's most beautiful handy work. It doesn't even matter if you are in the mountains, or on the plains or on the beach. Just breathe in the air and the sounds of nature and I hope you see some of the wildlife in your area while you walk or sit still. It is there, we just have to wait and listen and watch.

Roses cool and refreshed in my front yard today


That reminds me of some of the messages I grew up with in church. When we want peace in our lives, just find a quiet place and wait and listen and we will hear God speak to us in some way. Maybe we have woes and want his help, but many times it is good just to wait for him to offer us his peace. Then our problems will work themselves out because we will learn to step back and let him (God) do his part so we won't feel like we have to do it all ourselves.

Last new roses shading old fallen petals


One thing about that time alone in the outdoors... I like to think of someone who isn't able to get out there on their own, like I was, maybe friends or family that can't drive, or walk by themselves. Maybe they are in a wheelchair or on oxygen or whatever.


Wouldn't it be nice if someone took the time to take them out somewhere and let them experience what they probably haven't in years?

Fields of the last sunflowers of summer

I remember looking out my hospital windows when I spent three months there and other times for a month or weeks at a time and seeing people coming and going and wishing I could be there too.

I felt like I had been there forever and I doubted I would ever be out there in the 'real' world again. The four walls around me were all that I knew and the air conditioned air just didn't compare to nature's own air conditioning and cleaning system (the wind). I felt like a prisoner and even though the doors weren't locked, they might as well have been because for a time I couldn't walk or even stand up from weakness and 'drop foot' which required many many hours of physical therapy to learn how to walk again and to strengthen my legs and feet. I couldn't do even the most basic self care needs for myself. I was a prisoner of my weakened body.

Autumn still gives life and reaches for the sunshine

During my longest stay in the hospital, my youngest brother came with his four lively and beautiful children one day and they got me in a wheelchair and took off with me. We left the hospital, into the sunshine. I felt like an excapee from prison. He wheeled me across the street into a park and out onto the bumpy grass. The kids ran and played and I turned my face to the sun and breathed in the fresh air. What a joy! I was too weak to do anything but watch but it was the best day of my stay. My nephews took turns pushing me on the sidewalk and eventually along the hospital hallways and back to my room. That was the best gift anyone could have given me.
When I couldn't excape, my grandchildren loved to take turns pushing me or riding in my lap in the wheelchair. Children don't know it's not cool to ride in a wheelchair until someone tells them or other kids make fun. What a blessing children can be.
Later on, I got a pass and my husband absconded with me and we went to a resturant to meet more family member's for my first meal outside the hospital. My family were wonderful and I think it was the first time any of us thought I might actually get better. I could barely eat, but the excitement of eating at a table out in the 'real' world was so new and so wonderful I just wanted to fully experience it all.

October sunshine on a summer rose

I feel like this rose. I may be in the October of my life but summer's sunshine still feeds my body and especially my soul.




I have had a special heart for the elderly ever since I was a teenager. As a young mother, I enjoyed taking elderly relatives with me and my small children on picnics or rides in the nearby hills or even just to my house to make Christmas cookies. What a relief it was for them to be out of the house and with children again. I loved my time with them and felt so close to each of them. I feel I was so richly blessed by knowing them and my children loved the gentle and special relationship they had with elderly relatives.

Sunlight through leaves along the trail

A special friend, my aunt-in-law (my then husbands aunt) was one of the best friends I've ever had. I was only in my twenty's and she in her eighties, but we shared so much together and talked about everything. She was a great mentor to me and she enjoyed being appreciated and not being treated as too fragile or too old to be fun to be with or to enjoy being out. My kids were always excited to be going to 'Aunt Mary's' house. She always had the colorful miniature marshmellows for them to munch on and she was the only place where it was ok to climb on her furniture and play with her antique toys (which I eventually inherited some of). What memories.

These were thick along the trail we walked last week, usually considered weeks, but beautiful when in flower

Well, anyway, I know, a little early, what it is like to be dependant on others for personal help, transportation and for friendship regardless of my condition. I hope to return that favor to someone else again when I get the chance. It feels so much better to give to someone than it is to recieve, even when it is given freely. It has definitely been humbling to be the receiver and I hope it will make it even more clear how much it means to other's to just be their friend and not to just do a duty or be a caretaker.

Being a friend means you love someone like you do yourself and you respect them like you want to be respected. It is a two way street and not just a donation of time to be nice. I so much appreciated the wisdom and laughter my elderly friends shared with me and I hope others will take advantage of the communities of people just waiting inside, not daring to hope again to be one of the people outside in the 'real' world again. Just something to think about.

Now I would like to appologize 'again' to all of my blogging friends for not keeping up with you all in awhile. Sometimes, my life get's hectic and I love it. It sure beats all those months that I couldn't do more than sit all day in the recliner and watch tv, being too weak to walk accross the room. I am planning on living to the fullest right up to the last moment and making sure my grandkids know the special insights and gifts of being with elderly and or handicapped family and friends.

One of my favorite pictures. Coming down the North slope of Raton Pass in Colorado. We were above the clouds seperating the mountains from the lowlands. I wish everyone could experience being above the clouds at least once.

Love to you all and I will be visiting all of you to see how you are doing also. Oh, by the way, my son David is doing well after his third round of biochemotherapy and is out visiting his friends and keeping busy. He will do another round in 2 more weeks. Then, two weeks after that they will do the MRI again to see where he stands and I hope and pray that all the cancer will be gone. "That's the Plan!!"

Ever wonder what a mountain man in training might look like? This is my nephew trying on my brothers new animal skins he cured himself. (As hunter's, we have our own sense of humor)

Take care and get out there!