~from this side of the mountain~

I panicked the other night when I read the news online.  It was the report that several weather services, including my old faithful Farmer's Almanac, have been saying for a while.  The winter ahead promises to be a rough one for our country with much more snow and colder temperatures than we have seen in a long, long time.  I read it before bedtime at the day's end, when I should have been preparing for a night's rest.  Not a smart move on my part to have done so.  

     Good morning dear friends and family from here along the Western Slopes of Colorado's Rocky Mountains in a place that just two nights ago seemed a gazillion miles away from my old home in Reno County, Kansas instead of the usual 611.  As things would go,  just before bedtime I was looking through a post or two on Facebook that told of how the winter ahead of us was beginning to shape up, with a map of the country included.  For someone like me who pretends to "tolerate" the long season of the white stuff, it was a rather unnerving image to see.  Weather is what it is and no matter whether you like it or not, you must be willing to go through it.  The good and the bad.  Summer's warm temperatures and winter's not so warm ones.
     The reason I panicked, and by the way I mean I really DID panic for about an hour or so, was that a very irrational fear that I had all last summer during my first lonely months of life living in the mountains, made a return appearance.  And the fear was this~

The mountains will swallow me up.  I won't be able to get over them in order to see my family on the other side again.  Monarch Pass will "close the door".  The winter weather will be too awful this year and I won't be able to cross over to the other side of the Continental Divide.  I'll never see Kansas again.  
     Silly, isn't it?  But believe me when you are the one having the proverbial "panic attack", those fears are as real as the day is long.  It took an hour for the bad feelings to go away but they finally did and when sleep came to me a couple of night's back, it was a blessing.
    I was not sure if this blog post should be considered one about bad winter weather, getting home to Kansas, having panic attacks, crossing over Monarch Pass or being homesick.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this particular post is really more about having faith.  Faith that whatever should happen to me, be it bad or good, that I can get through it.  Every part of it.  Even the rough ones.  How about it friends?  Do you guys ever have trouble with remembering that in the end, it always works out like it is supposed to?  
     We've enjoyed a nice summer here and by the calendar on the wall it is apparent that summer's days will soon be "officially" through.   Autumn is next up on the dance card and politely as can be, waits to tap on the shoulder of the warm days of summer in order to take its rightful place in the dance of the seasons.  The leaves are already beginning to change to their brilliant colors and although they cannot show forever, they are giving it their best shot.  Perhaps sooner than we would wish this year, wintertime shall return and with it comes the cold and snow, ice and sleet, and the bitter winds that always accompany it.  The calendar allots Winter 3 months, just like the all the other seasons.  Winter has a hard time sharing with its  other friends some years.  My hope is that the 2014-15 season is not one of them.
     My life is here now in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of the great state of Colorado.  The southwestern part of the state has provided me with a new life with family and friends here to be a part of.  Will I ever see Kansas again?  Of course I will.  Will the weather sometimes delay or prohibit my return there from time to time?  More than likely, yes it could.  Will my family and friends in the great Sunflower State forget about me just because I am not there?  No, they will remember me still.  Do I need to panic, to fear for any reason?  Absolutely not.  God called me here in His perfect timing.  He didn't just plan to drop me off to fend for myself and say 

"Good luck in the Wilderness Peggy!  I'll be back to check on you later on."

Nah... nothing like that at all.  
The God who made me, the one who chose me is with me here too.  On the plains of Kansas or nestled into this valley that I live in now~I haven't been alone at all.  It only felt like it from time to time.

      The top of Monarch Pass one wintry day in 2013~

At the very top one time when winter's snow was piled deep against the visitor's center~

Last year at Christmas time when I refused to let winter get to me.  We were going home for Christmas no matter what!

Last year's Christmas card picture~We were standing in front of a tree that normally houses a very active bee hive during summer's warm temperatures.  Even they had given up for the season.