Streams in the Desert

The southern part of Idaho has a desert climate....a place where a mere 13” of rain during an entire year is considered to be average. We rely on snow collecting in the mountains during the winter and early spring. This is the “snow pack”; it is measured and reported about on the nightly news. We want it to melt slowly, allowing us to use every precious drop two or three times as it finds its way into the Snake and Columbia Rivers on…

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In the Desert

"I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the…

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Deserts and Mountains

In October of 2019, my husband and I moved to Meridian, Idaho, from Alexandria, Virginia, where we had lived for over 31 years. Due to family living here, we were already quite familiar with the area – we knew where grocery and home improvement stores were located. We had been to Boise State football and basketball games; we had enjoyed the Boise Symphony and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. We had camped at Redfish Lake and fly fished in the Snake and Salmon Rivers.…

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Wilderness

What do you think of when you hear the word wilderness? For most people they probably think of a location or a place that they have been that may seem isolated or away from “civilization.” A place in the middle of a forest, up a mountain, or maybe even in the middle of the desert. In the United States we even have the National Wilderness Preservation System that helps preserve some of these places from our world of land development. But there is…

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Listening to the Silence

“The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.” Revelation 12:6 I, too, flee to the desert twice a year for a silent retreat, but I don’t get to stay twelve hundred and sixty days. I wish! Marymount Hermitage, a place in the desert definitely prepared by God, is located between Cambridge and Council off Highway 95. You have to slow to a…

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