Leaf 1 - Renewed Desire to Blog

I started this blog a year ago, expecting to use it as a way to document & share the adventures I anticipated encountering in 2009. I had adventures, for sure, but the sharing never happened. Instead, I disappeared into the mountains. I embraced the new challenges before me, and faced a host of joys & difficulties. One of those difficulties was dealing with the isolation that comes with living so deep in the mountains that internet is a 30 minute drive & possibly not reliable, cell phone service is another hour beyond that, my closest friend is an additional 30 minutes (in Fresno, along with all the shopping & services I rely on), and my closest church congregation is yet another hour & a half beyond that. Thankfully, that extreme isolation isn’t year-round; only through the summer. Currently I’m one hour less-isolated. Still difficult, but more manageable, especially since it does mean reliable internet all the time. Now that I’ve gone through 6 months of it already, I know what to expect for the coming year, and that’s half the battle! So, this year I’m going to be much more deliberate about staying connected. I am inspired by Mary’s “Happy Sabbath” emails and Jeremy’s “Sabbath Thoughts” posts, so anticipate following some sort of weekly update routine. Mine, however, are probably more likely to be Saturday evenings or Sundays.