The Life of Glory

after the storm...

Dreaming about today instead of tomorrow...

W hen I get stressed out, I cannot rest until I am in the woods paying attention to these beautiful details....    Photographs from my life. Home Sweet Mountain Home. © 2014 Kelly Ann Miller

The moments that keep me going... Sometimes you just have to get outside, let the dogs swim and breathe. Photographs from my life. Home Sweet Mountain Home © 2014 Kelly Ann Miller

Today's agenda : Wear out my over-energetic dog.  Reality : I wore myself out. I'm definitely getting the idea that I should stop hiking alone. I love the quiet enjoyment and the freedom to let my mind wonder and my imagination sore. I enjoy all the memories that flood my head at the sight of a mountain peak I've climbed and dipping my toes in a lake I've only seen from afar. These mountains have become like old friends, and a kind of sanctuary where I talk to God, but I think it's time I take more than God and dog on my walks. Maybe it was everything on my mind, or the very long day I had yesterday, (or both) but my degenerative disease showed up today and I fell. Right there in the dirt, on the trail. It wasn't a paralysis kind of fall, it was a wobbly kneed/drop foot fall that left me walking like a drunken cartoon on the way back. Exhibit A for why I shouldn't hike alone anymore. I made it to my car, no scary business really, just too many dangerou...

I do so enjoy a good summer storm like today! I don't much like hot weather and when the rain started falling while I was at work I couldn't resist a step onto the back deck. The steamy air, dark clouds and big raindrops falling on my skin were most welcome after this unusually hot weather! I wasn't the only one enjoying it either. I finally got customers once it started raining! Then my drive home brought the smell of wet pine trees and a view of mist across the road and over the mountains. Storms are powerful and can be dangerous, but maybe that image of God's power and gentleness is what I love most about them. It's just so beautiful that a God so powerful to make weather ever changing and drastic loves me ! Anyway, today was gorgeous and this evening chill is blissful. I am so thankful for this much needed, refreshing summer!  

Sometimes the serene mountain life is too solitary, I'll admit it. Most of my hiking is done with Henry as my only companion. This is, much of the time, fine by me. I'll pack my imagination and we are off to discover new and familiar parts of Plumas County. Lately though, I have been too tired and trying really hard not to "overdo it" (as so many people warn me against). I can't afford to have a bad day on a work day, but where is the fine line? I question whether I have been babying my body too much and am just a slave to fear that I'll have another episode. Or am I doing exactly what my body needs to have more good days? This degenerative disease is not so fun, especially as a single, independent woman who needs to pay bills. Thankful for the friends who constantly look out for me around here! Dreaming of a picnic...

Yah took time to enjoy  all that He had made in the creation process. At the end of each day, he stopped and saw that it was "good." Then he took a day of rest to really enjoy it. We, however, often overlook the beautiful. Caught up in ourselves, our tasks, money, or having fun, we don't take time to really enjoy what is right in front of us. So, I've been training myself to notice. I have a photo album that says "Happiness" on the front and for the past two years I have been filling it with beautiful moments. Photographs of people and things that made me happy. This way, when I look back, I won't just remember how hard and painful those two years were. I'll have proof that good things happened too. Maybe one day I will better see that I have so much more because of this disease, not in spite of it. Sometimes you really do need to stop and smell the flowers

  Saturday. May 11, 2013   #latergram   It's days like this that I love being single and living in Plumas County. I can just hit the trail and be undistracted from the beauty I see. Like this lovely fallen tree just offshore at Big Bear Lake. It was so peaceful sitting there; these gorgeous feminine lines and amazing sun bleached textures, with water lapping against its wood as I stared off at a snowcapped mountain view and listened to birds sing... It was one of those beautiful moments where you think of nothing but what is right in front of you and revel in its charm.  I should really do this more often