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Summertime in the mountains is one of my very favorite things. And this summer is especially good for me because the weather is as cool and gentle as I remember it being in my long ago childhood; and because I’ve had the joy of meeting some young people who have made me smile and given me renewed hope for the future of this Country I still love so well.
That was a long intro to what I plan to make a fairly brief comment on the state of my small “nation” . . . As I learn about this new form of communication known as blogging, I try to spend a little time each day thinking of things that I care about that might also matter to other people.
Every day Danny Boy takes me for a walk. While he romps through the aspen forest in search of adventure, I pray in search of God’s will, His wisdom and His direction for this continuing adventure that is my life. (Danny, by the way, is an Australian Shepherd pup who calls me his own—he is, you see, not mine, I am his.)
Yesterday, as we walked, it occurred to me that the joys of my childhood remain deep within my heart and still speak to me in the same way they did long ago. When I was a little girl growing up in the East Los Angeles suburb of Montebello, my very best times came on family vacations at Mammoth Lakes in the distant High Sierras where, for two weeks each year, I was in heaven. Today, that dream of Heaven lives on. Only now, I reside in the Rocky Mountains in a little cabin on a quiet country road where I wake up every morning thanking God for this home, this place, this life—a few of His most treasured gifts to me.
What does all this have to do with the young people I mentioned earlier? Quite a lot really. This past week, I had the joy of meeting two young men and (in another setting) two younger girls, all engaged in the hopeful and innocent adventures of their youth.
The young men were a pair of twenty-year-old crusaders riding bicycles from Tempe, Arizona to St. Paul Minnesota to raise awareness of and money for a Catholic outreach for college students that is spreading across the Nation offering students a setting in which to share their faith and increase their own hope. Daniel Tansill and David Edwards (who is actually turning 20 today) are “Spreading God’s Love Across the Country” on the odyssey they call the Tour de CROSS. You can learn more about their adventure at: http://tourdecross.blogspot.com.
The younger girls—fifteen-year-old Sierra and fourteen-year-old Sarah, were cousins on vacation riding horses with their aunt and living, like I once did, their horse-loving dreams for a brief two weeks in the mountains far from their homes. Of course I identified most with the girls. But by all four of these youngsters, I was enriched.
In the boys I saw a faith in God that I didn’t have at their age, a faith that I’m sure would have led me on a less perilous course through life than the one I chose. In the girls I saw the innocence and the road map for life that God offers through association with the horse. And, through the passion those girls had for the horse, I was reminded of God’s gift to me of love for this great creature that I believe He sent to carry me across the miles toward Him on the journey I once thought was mine alone.
Because I saw the girl I once was in both Sierra and Sarah, I gave each of them all three books in the Lost Legend Trilogy (http://www.horselegend.com), in hope that through these stories, they’ll come to know the origin of humankind’s great partnership with God’s beloved horse. Both girls promised book reports. When these promises are fulfilled, I’ll share in this blog what the girls have to say.
I’ll pray for all four of these young people from now on in hope that each one will know our Lord always as He leads them in their quests toward fulfillment in Him. And I’ll pray that when the dreams of their youth become reality, they’ll recognize the Source of the Gift and pass the message on.
May you and your dreams be forever-Blessed by the Merciful God who loves us all.
