highlights

Driving across Kansas and Eastern Colorado is a trip that I can pretty much do in my sleep because we've done it as a family since I was 6 years old, twice a year at least.  I know all the convenient places to stop that have clean bathrooms and the cheapest gas.  We had many side adventures as kids on the trip to places like Monument Rocks and the Fick Fossil Museum.

Making the trek yesterday was heartbreaking, so I tried to experience some thankfulness and wonder at the small gifts around me through the drive.  I started with looking back at Pike's Peak every opportunity I could between leaving Colorado Springs and when it disappeared below the horizon line.  The first magenta & purple rays of sunrise reflecting off the menacing, snow-covered, sleeping giant were so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes for many reasons.  I am so grieved to not have the grounding of driving past that mountain every morning.

I noted the sun reflecting off the smooth, wind-blown glass surface of the snowy fields on the Eastern Plains that shimmered into a rainbow.  Antelope trotted along a ridge in another snow-drifted field out that direction, too.

When I crossed the state line, I was surprised that the speed limit remained the same.  I haven't made the drive recently, so was unaware of the raise until yesterday.  As I kept going east, I noticed small tinges of green in fields - the promise of springtime that can't be too far off!  Large, ominous windmills spun furiously in the fields creating a vast energy supply for such a quiet state.  I also giggled at large, fluffy llamas (or alpacas?) with fur billowing in the wind that were grazing along the highway.  Chinooks were carefully parked on the tarmac at the army airfield, too, which reminds me of trying to name off the equipment that my brother & I saw as we would drive past on the way to see family.

I want to delight in the little gifts in this season of transition when I can often focus on the challenges.  I pray that my life would reflect thanksgiving to a gracious God who loves to see His daughter cherish such moments.