Mary In Bloom

It's three weeks since my last post and I did finally start running again.....yesterday.  With good intentions I set my alarm every night for an hour early enough for me to rise and get a run in before the rest of my day started, but I am the queen of procrastination and I love my sleep.  Then something very wonderful happened!  Now, I have lived here since 2007; I love the beach, but have since grumbled and complained that this area does not have any hiking trails.  I had heard of this little place called Vereen Gardens located just a couple of miles from my neighborhood, but always pictured it as a dinky little trail with no ups or downs.  In a word: boring.  Well, last Friday came and Brandon and I both wanted to shrug off the gym (again), but I wanted to at least do something physical so I suggested with take the dogs for a short jaunt at Vereen Gardens.  We loaded the pooches into the car and made our way to Vereens really just expecting a short, quick walk in the fresh air.  Oh, my fancy was tickled as we discovered a treasure trove of winding, interconnected, up-and-down dirt trails!  Trails-trails-trails!!  I couldn't be more excited because I can run forever on trails and not realize how far I have gone.  The trails eventually take you to marshy wetlands where they have built bridges for people to walk over.  We were getting hungry and still had to make a stop at Wal-Mart so we turned around and headed back to the car with plans to bring our nephew back the next day.  Saturday, with nephew and dogs in tow, we went back and crossed the bridges to find the shore of the intracoastal way lined with thousands upon thousands of oyster shells.  I have never seen anything like it!  Monday came and I think my husband was a little surprised to hear me making plans to hit Vereen Gardens yet again, but without skipping a beat, I put on my iPod, grabbed Kudra and hit the trails a-runnin'.  There is nothing like pure nature to remind me of the glory and magnificence of God.  There is nothing like being surrounded by forest to remind me of my smallness and how fleeting this life is in the grand scheme of things.  It reminds me to stop putting things off until tomorrow.  Like Pastor Clay's wife Kim preached at our recent Threads event, "Better get to livin'!"  I got turned around a couple of times, but used the light from the setting sun to figure out which direction the Jeep was parked.  Eventually I believe I will have the trails figured out and I know I'm going to have an amazing time doing it.  It dumbfounds me that I never set out to explore this place, but the Lord knows what we need and when we need it!
"I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours"  - Casting Crowns