I know I promised baseball pictures today. They may yet happen, the game is at 1400 hours. However, the first priority is prayer and I found a great place.

This is a place of peace and it is very hard to hear a sound made by people. The wind gently lifted up the valley, whispered God's presence and refreshed my thoughts, feelings and experience of God and my place in His design.

I know what I enjoy -- helping people. I know God's call on my life -- to be sanctified holy, to live God's love, to hear God's needs and to enjoy God, forever. I know the work I do well -- bringing peace to strident moments and hurting hearts. I know what I love -- God Holy Spirit's voice of compassion. These all are within the scriptures.

There is no extra faithfulness or goodness based on geography. (that is the work done today) There is only hearing God and expressing the desire of my heart to a loving God. Before I left on this journey a good friend told me to follow my heart. If I know anything about me, my heart belongs to God -- follow I shall. When I pray my prayer is, "Father cleanse any heart desire that does not conform to your perfect will," I am on the trail to a desert stream that refreshes, renews and affirms.

God's perfect will -- that is all I want, that is where this journey will find a gentle spiritual breeze that whispers, peace be still, trust, commit, delight, and be at rest in My plan. This is my doctrine of assurance.


Today assurance balances my life, holding the love I have for adventure and newness with the gratefulness I have for a place of service that allows me to make a difference. What more could I ask, I am content today. Even today I was able to help a hurting person and to know this was a sacred and truly important moment.

The cheesy grin on my face is there because of heart joy. The road seems smooth and the view worthy of the walk.

Well, what a great day. I met with God at every turn. He does good work!

This is just Southeast of Sedona, AZ. The rock formation on the left is Bell Rock. Just stop anyplace there is a picture.

I have seen some magnificent rock formations today. Yet, everyone of of these formations is a result of erosion. The desert is ever changing. Balanced rocks come unbalanced and fall. I am constantly reminded my Rock does not change.


Sedona, about 30 minutes after sunset and by the light of the full moon.











In case anyone is wondering -- baseball pictures start tomorrow. I saw the minor league players today for about 1.5 hours. The drills that are being worked on are so far beyond my abilities I could only laugh -- and I did lots of that. "A joyful heart..."


Here is one last picture, just because I can.

From Flagstaff to Sedona is Alt-89A. This is the most beautiful road in the world. One day I will start at Mexico and meander my way
to Canada -- a picture around every corner.

This was my first sight of Oak Creek Canyon. No picture I take will ever do justice to the beauty. This is one place worth going to on purpose and getting out the walking stick.



With clouds hanging low the top of the mesa is hard to catch. Add to this the snow and freezing ice and you will understand why I laughed at myself. I had been overly optimistic, I had on walking shorts and sneakers. Had to dig into the duffel and find the sweats to keep from turning blue all over.















Here we are Surprise Stadium, BASEBALL, smell of hot dogs, children and parents together, more wrinkles than I knew existed (Its winter, AZ, and snow birds as far as the eye can see.) I arrived at about 1630 hours. (Temp 76.) The game in progress was in the ninth inning so I opted to walk around the grounds. Four baseball fields and lots of practice time. More to come.

The Royals play an away game on Tuesday so I'll be scoping out a different field tomorrow.

When Rain and Sun Teach in the Desert

"I drove through a peekaboo rainbow today. As a rare desert rain storm approached I saw a rainbow start to form, suddenly it was gone." These are words from my personal journal written on Saturday as I left the panhandle of Oklahoma. I had just entered New Mexico on my way to Capulin Volcano.

I was disappointed for I did not have my camera out. Then I crested a ridge and was surprised by the sudden return of the rainbow. I pulled over and snapped several pictures.

The full rainbow appeared and disappeared at a blink. Parts of the rainbow vanished and then sparkled. Both legs of the rainbow blinked on and off leaving the hump only and then supporting it to the earth again.

Curious, I turned around to glance at Sol and discovered the cause. At about 0930 the sun is low in the sky. Small clouds covered its face and then moved away. Each movement changed what appeared as the rainbow.

I see this as a gift and lesson to me from God. I hear Him saying, "Have patience the small clouds will appear and be blown away. All the elements of the rainbow remain including the light. The light will always be there; for, 'I am the light of the world.' "

There have been times over the last year when there was no rainbow, no promise of God to short circuit the grief process seemed real. The struggle is normal in loss but I had placed expectations to overcome grief on myself. Foolish, sure I admit it. There is more to reflect on in this but I know the lesson was for me.

Black Mesa from the porch at Black Mesa B&B The B&B is run by Vicki and Monty Joe Roberts.

Vicki is a hoot. Smiles, kindness and God's friend. I am sure people have said, "With Vicki what you see is what you get," one than once. What a smile.

Monty Joe is an artist with an exceptional eye for nature photography. Monty's family prayer at breakfast was comfortable and comforting.

Breakfast was great! I mentioned the Prickly Pear Jelly homemade by Vicki in another page. Worth asking for more.
The room clean, comfortable and in American West decor.

Cacti and Hearing

Cactus, Cactus and more Cactus These pictures were taken at the Black Mesa State Park near Kenton, OK.




Prickly Pear cactus makes great jelly. For breakfast Vicki at the Black Mesa B&B served it with home made biscuits. Oh! So! Good!






I might have spent all day taking pictures of cacti if the light had not gone bad. Not for everyone -- but fun.





Dry, desolate? Yes. Tenacious, adapted, designed? Absolutely. There was enough contrast here in the park to allow me to sit hear, talk, listen, rest, and get a little sunburned.

The hearing and listening had much to do with God's perfect will. That is the joy of this trip -- a two way conversation with God providing the illustrations everywhere I looked.

Speaking of listening, there was a barbed wire fence about 40 feet way and the wind blew so hard the wires moaned. At first I thought an animal might be hurt. The three wires each had a different pitch and together they made a cord that had to be in a minor key for it evoked sadness. After listening for a while, I took a stone and held it against one of the wires. The pitched changed. I laughed thinking This could be a new music type -- fencing. (You could do better? Leave a comment.)

This is Dorthy Gale's house in Liberal, KS. Dorothy is a little stuck-up but the fat guy in the background seems nice.






Sometimes these friends leave me flat and it would be hard to say much for the makeup job on Dorothy but at least the Tin-Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion look real.