Berries--and Beauty--to Enjoy During a Very Long Journey

"Don't worry, Mom!" one of the children messaged me Sunday afternoon a couple hours after they had left our cabin in Rapid City after church. "We're bringing you some berries, too!"

Walking on Roughlock Falls Trail, they had discovered a bunch of tiny wild strawberries, bright red raspberries, and even a few huckleberries! 

 

And they were bringing some back for me--me who had to stay back at the cabin still recuperating after surgery, and reading, but rejoicing that they had such a fun walk that afternoon, complete with joyous berry picking. 

 

It's been a long cancer journey, but there have been so many beautiful things to bless us along the way, like berries and beauty, and like a sunshine box that was sent to the Woodards for me from a sister. In it were several articles of classy clothing, a new purse (how did she know I needed a new and larger purse?) and a book called Teddy and Booker T,  about Booker T. Washington and Theodore Roosevelt, who together fought for racial equality.

 

  Today it's two and a half weeks post surgery, and I am still stitched together, with two or three doctor appointments under my belt since the surgery.  

 

Every doctor appointment, whether to take off the wound vac or take out stitches or have a fresh blood lab drawn or just have a checkup pretty much takes up most of a day--or a weekend, if we stay in Rapid City over the weekend. It's like being in a foreign country up here in rural South Dakota by the reservations. 

But we just try to make the best of it, and I so enjoy the beautiful scenery this year as we pass fields of hay and cattle on our 2 1/2 hour journey once or twice a week to Rapid City.

 

This was one of my favorite scenes near the Badlands. Whether Berries or Badlands, we are blessed with beauty along the way!