Paths; Bugs; & Golden Rod

One thing I love about Maumelle is that it has asphalt paths all through the wooded neighborhoods.  These woods are located behind the homes.  Many times when the developers develop a neighborhood they cut down all the trees.  I hate that.  It is just bare & the neighborhoods have to start all over with planting trees.  Our neighborhood has more trees than most neighborhoods.  In fact we have all woods in & behind our back yard, & just love it.

We didn't think we had these wonderful paths in our neighborhood, but we did finally find them. There was only one problem, though.  There were no signs in these woods to mark each path, & we would get very lost.  On the positive side, though, there is an expectant excitement in what you might find or where you might end up.

(This isn't our path,
 but I love this picture.)













On our first path walk the weather was still very warm.  The gnats were swarming all around my head & buzzing in my ears.  I was about to go crazy.   I was having to multi-task: keep up with Dave, walk, hold onto Truffle & swat the gnats.  I had to admit that these gnats were ruining my walk.  Dave didn't seem to mind them so much.

As I was walking, I couldn't help but think about what scripture says in comparing us to sheep.  Sheep are suppose to be stupid animals & they definitely need a shepherd.  For sheep to rest they need four things:
1) free from hunger
2) free from fear
3) free from friction
4) free from bugs (irritants)

The shepherd takes care of all the sheep's needs.  One thing the shepherd would do to help the sheep with bugs or irritants was to anoint the sheep's head & nose with oil.   That day I felt God needed to anoint my head, nose & ears with oil.  I am sure that God would have rather anointed my spirit & heart with oil & change my attitude.

Well, I guess He did a little, because when I quit working at swatting the bugs away it became a game.  I realized that my sunglasses protected my face, somewhat.  As I would ignore them, all of a sudden I started seeing the beautiful golden rod, Fall flowers & the birds were sounding pretty sweet.

We are still walking, usually every evening when Dave gets home.  Truffle is pacing at the door ready to go.  Tonight, Dave told me that he was going to take me to his "Happy Place."  As we were walking, I enjoyed the Fall leaves as they were starting to pop.  The Bugs were gone & the air was nice & cool.  He had it all mapped out.  He took me to his swamp where the wood ducks were coming in for the evening.  It was fun to hear them call to each other & splash in the swamp as they would dive in.  The sunset behind the swamp was beautiful.  Also, down the path, he knew right where the deer would be.  He was right.  We heard one.  I couldn't see a thing, because it was getting so dark.  We did meet one other critter along the way-a moccasin snake.  That was not in the brochure.  Dave almost stepped on it.  Thank heavens he was caring Truffle.  After going through the mud, climbing over two huge fallen down trees, we were almost home.

Before we left the house to go walk, I had burnt the brussel sprouts.  For some reason I always do that with this vegetable.  We don't eat them often, & we're not very crazy about them; but they look so good in the store. When we got home that horrible smell was still there.  Needless to say, the garage disposal got a lot of our supper tonight.

I do have some other food to fill our sheep bellies.

                         ann :)