Surprising Joy

 Dear Friends,

Sometimes joy comes in surprising places.

Quite a while ago I was telling you about my trip this past summer to Zion National Park with my family, our walk in the Narrows, and the threat of a flash flood that did not come into fruition.

What I didn’t tell you was that a flash flood did happen...it just happened on the opposite side of the park from us....and shut down the entire park for hours.

My family and I had made it out of the Narrows before the rain started in earnest, stood in line for our shuttle bus in the rain, and then got on the shuttle bus to take us to where the rest of our family waited at the entrance to the park.  We started on our way, got a few stops down, and stopped...and waited…for hours.  Wet, shivering, stuck on a muggy and cold bus, my mama, several siblings and I, and a gaggle of nieces and nephews and my kids waited, with no idea why we were stopped, only that it was a shelter-in-place.

After hours of waiting, we finally got on our way again, only to be stopped a few miles down with no indication of when or if we would be able to get to our cars that day.

If you’ve ever been to Zion, you’ll know that you park at the southern entrance to the park, and then take a shuttle bus up the canyon.  By that second stop we were about 5 miles away from the entrance, but it was cold and drizzly, and we were in the shelter of a bus and knew we would be safe there if we couldn’t get out of the park and that it could potentially be dangerous if we got stuck on the road with no shelter in the cold and wet.

But the weather finally turned.  It got a little warmer, it stopped raining, and so our discussions turned in earnest to whether we stay on the bus with the unknown time-frame, or walk the five miles to our car.  After much debate back and forth, we decided to take the walk.

And, oh my friends, it was just the most beautiful walk.  The shuttle bus is a lovely ride (when you’re not stuck on it for hours), but you can’t see the canyon fully when you’re on it.  But our walk, our walk was just magical.  Five miles, slightly downhill the whole time, with the canyon walls surrounding us and the ability to really soak in the beauty of that place in a totally different way.  Yes, there were some blisters, some chafing, a bit of kid complaining (there had been miles and miles of hiking prior to our unexpected five mile walk!), but it was totally worth it to experience that canyon in that new and different way.   

At the exact time we walked up to the visitor center, we saw our bus turn into the road in front of us.  Turns out our walk was unneeded.  But the experience was priceless, it was so majestic and beautiful.

My dear friends, sometimes joy comes in surprising and unexpected places.  And sometimes we need to look around to find it.

I hope you have a joyful week my friends.

Love
Krista