desert – hugsnblessings

fun run

Published on March 19, 2023March 23, 2023 by Dawn Marie6 Comments

TRUE THAT!!!

EXCEPT…

when you’re running with the Nuns!

True to its name, Our Lady of Solitude Monastery is deep in the Sonoran desert and affords the nuns much solitude and silence. This is the first cloistered, contemplative monastery in the Diocese of Phoenix, providing local Catholics with a place of pilgrimage, prayer, and Eucharistic Adoration.

It truly is an oasis in the desert!

Visiting there, praying with, and sharing liturgy with these holy women is always a highlight of our stay in Arizona.

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let it rain

Published on March 1, 2023March 6, 2023 by Dawn Marie6 Comments

For the past several years Cuppycake and I have been blessed to spend time, during winter, in one of our favorite locations – Scottsdale, Arizona.

This year has been unlike others in that we noticed straight away how incredibly green the desert mountains are due to the unusual amount of rain they’ve received.

Because of this the locals are all abuzz over the high probability that this will trigger what is known as a SUPER BLOOM season!

And they anticipate this may be triggered any week now!!

It’s wildflower season and conditions this year may be just right to bring “super blooms” to life in parts of California and the southwestern USA.

Super blooms are a relatively rare floral phenomenon, even in places renowned for vibrant native wildflowers. As an example the last spectacular super bloom displays recorded in Death Valley were in 2016, 2005, and 1998.

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precious stones

Published on September 7, 2022September 12, 2022 by Dawn Marie8 Comments

There is an ancient story out of the Middle East which tells of three merchants crossing the desert. They were traveling at night in the darkness to avoid the heat of the day. As they were crossing over a dry creek bed, a loud attention-demanding voice out of the darkness commanded them to stop. They were then ordered to get down off their camels, stoop down and pick up pebbles from the creek bed, and put them into their pockets.