Drinking From the Fountain at Sunrise

 Labor Day morning we had a day off from the clinic, and Jonathan found a little easy Nature Trail about 12 minutes away. 

It was across from Mayo Clinic.

I was so weak that morning, I wasn't sure I should go, but as usual, unless I'm too weak to walk, I go walking in the morning. 

We didn't know if this trail would be a good one or one we'd wish we hadn't bothered to drive to.

As it turned out, it was a good one!

We set off early, and the sun was just rising over the distant hill as we walked. 

Jonathan caught this photo as I was getting a drink from a stone fountain. 

That was the highlight of the walk!

Another highlight was the moon way up above us, above this Joshua tree.

There were dozens of plaques giving names of cacti and trees, details about the plants, what parts were edible, and how the plants used to be used years ago by natives. 

This one is an Organpipe cactus.

 That trail was simply fascinating, and well worth the 12 minutes of driving it took to get there on a holiday morning.

I don't know how I keep going here sometimes, but to be honest, these early morning walks are something that get me up in the morning, eagerly looking forward to meeting the day--especially the sunrise.   

(Today we saw two javelinas {wild pigs} crossing the street as we turned the corner of Mary Munde Walk just outside our condo.)

 We have been going to bed around 8:30 or 9 most nights, as the clinic urges us to do, and then we are able to get up around 5:40.

"Get out in the sun without a hat or sunglasses," we are told. "Let the sunshine start up the serotonin in your brain and get your circadian rhythm on time." Our society is so used to electric lights and screens that we don't shut down at dark when we should. 

No wonder we are so exhausted. 

We also take walks at night as often as possible. It's part of the healing regimen here--getting out in nature, and keeping moving so glucose is being used up for energy instead of being sucked up by the greedy cancer cells.  

This is a picture we took in the drizzle one night as we walked down near the big fountain. 

I can't get over the blessing it has been to have this beautiful place to stay during cancer treatments, with so many fountains, so many trails, so much wildlife, and so much beauty. 

This was another night when it wasn't raining, but lightning lit up the clouds in the distance, as Jonathan was amazingly able to capture!

And this is what we can see from our back patio every single day--unless it is windy, when the fountain doesn't spray nearly as high. 

This fountain sprays 200 to 330 feet into the air. There is a whole lake of water feeding it, like a whole Bible ready to pour itself into us,

as much as we can handle. 

But being the human that I am, I am only able to drink a little at a time. A few verses each day, sometimes, in books as rich as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, I may only read and meditate on one verse.

Read it, pray it over myself and my loved ones, and then go walking while it is planted in my mind.

Like a drink from a stone fountain at sunrise, refreshing and cheering and just the right amount. 

Enough to keep you going those next steps, however wobbly they may be,

on your journey.