Hiking provides a number of health benefits. Not just physically, but also mentally and spiritually. Our family became keenly aware of a specific benefit through personal experience a few years ago. We were planning a trip back in 2012 not unlike the trip we are planning right now. The boys had never been to visit the desert southwest that Randi and I had fallen in love with. They had heard us speak in glowing terms and excited tones of the grandeur that we had seen and very much wanted to see it for themselves. We planned a three-week RV trip to Utah for early May.

At 3:30 in the morning on the last day of March, five years ago this past week, Randi’s dad called to tell us her mom had passed away. With her physical health, her passing was sudden but not unexpected. After the funeral, we invited her dad to make the trip to Utah with us. He grew up in Idaho, has a love for the American west, and saw the opportunity as a welcome distraction from a now empty house.

The second weekend in May we made our trek to start a two-week tour through Utah and Arizona. We saw Fisher Towers and Delicate Arch. We visited Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon. We scaled Angel’s Landing and swam in Lake Powell. We stood and beheld the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.

We hiked. We laughed. We cried. And along the way we began the healing process.  Hours of hiking provided a welcome physical exhaustion that brought peaceful nights of rest in the solitude of the desert. Beautiful scenery provided the backdrop to meaningful conversation and hours of just being together as a family. By no means was our grieving complete, but giant strides were made that would help to carry us through the weeks and months to come.

A favorite memory of the trip is of all of us sitting in the shadow of The Titan at Fisher Towers on that first day in Utah. We contemplated the enormity of the monolith that stood before us and reflected on how our own hearts echoed the words of David from Psalm 90, “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” I can’t read those words without thinking of that trip and the memories we made. I’m sure we’ll be recalling even more of those memories as we make new ones this coming May.

Have a great week everyone,

Mike