Throwing open the back door and throwing down my back pack, I grabbed the leash and called my four legged fur angel. Off we went. Spring is here and the sun would allow me to see. Nature was calling. Not even a long hot shower, washing away the day, could compete. I had to walk. The first image mirrored my day. Nature’s winter, like the winter of so many souls I sat with today, had left its calling card. I sighed and then bowed. With spring, the fallen trees of the past would still be there, but the new life would adorn them in spring’s promised splendor. On I walked… I would hold that hope until the others could believe.

As I left I turned back to bow in gratitude for the cleansing. The setting sun, lake and mountains were like a giant downy bed inviting me to jump into their softness. I had walked. Now I breathed. I heard John Muir’s words, “Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

As I left the whisper was as soft as the lake and mountains at sunset. “Hold the chalice for them little one. Be stubborn in your defiant hope. But, little one, be as stubborn in your remembrance that I hold the same chalice for you.” Amen…and so it is.