Small things bringing me joy this week:

• An adventurous hike through an Arizona canyon with some wonderful friends. Was the first time I used a point and shoot to capture memories from the day in about 5 years. That felt weird.
• A new rustic cream and sugar set (on clearance at Starbucks) to complement my french press when I entertain at home.
• The fact that today is the start of vacation!! Woo!

Taking a deep breath, I leaped for the pool in front of me. Green, cloudy water was what I was making my way into. If there had been another option, I may have taken it, but this far into our journey it was apparent that getting fully immersed wasn’t going to be an alternative anymore. I was making my way quickly to the other side of the creek when I stopped and rolled over onto my back, letting the air from my backpack support me. “We’re having an adventure!” I  thought. I looked to my right and beheld a massive groove in the wall that lit up with the reflection of the water. Now this is beauty. I took an extra minute to delight in the scene, then rolled over and crawled clumsily out of the water. We were in the middle of a hike along Salome creek with barely any knowledge of what was yet to beset us. We came to the final hurdle in our journey when we reached a 6 foot drop with no way around it. Stains on the rocks told us the pool below was significantly lower than it was in the past. With 7 members, we scrounged enough rope to carefully construct a harness. Whether we wanted to or not, down was our only way out and we all had to do it. One by one we cautiously made our way down the drop with words of encouragement and physical support when we were able. Time spent in the canyon reminded me of the lifelong journey we are all on: that taking a break to enjoy the moment is essential to maintaining strength, that a hand from a friend is a life saver, and that success comes with endurance.

Yes, today is the start of vacation! Why am I blogging today? Because I did it before hand, of course ;). No work on vaca–that’s an important rule to try to stick to. As a result, there will be no Simple Things next week, but rest assured that when I make it back from the beautiful mountains and scenes of northern Idaho, I will have lots of beautiful imagery to show for it.