How can a person use words to explain bliss? Is there enough ways to mix up these 26 little muses to adequately describe the golden flow of feeling contentment. How do I express amazement that the very thing I did not want to do is the cause of this heavenly delight? In one of my many attempts to find a way to lose weight, I stumbled on it. Walking. And how did it become such paradise? I began walking in Paradise. And He began to talk to me.

Hawaii, North Shore of Oahu. For some unexplained reason I had the unfamiliar desire to walk. There was a beautiful path to follow. Gloriously overgrown and sumptuous as a botanical garden. I desperately needed the alone time. As the days passed I walked 2, then 3, then 4 miles. I would have walked further, if I'd had the time. The combination of the miles of hibiscus,plumeria , and plumbago; the pounding of the surf; the gentle trade wind breezes; the unexpected and welcome misting rain showers. The environment was perfect. There was no one on the path. And He began to talk to me.

Because of the time difference (my body still thinking it was in the Midwest) I would awaken about 3 in the morning and wander out to the lanai, and be lured a few more steps out onto the darkened beach. The stars, the full moon, the billowing and moving clouds coming off the island. My senses were awakened from their dull everyday living stupor. Fresh fruit and fine fish met my morning taste-buds. I was stripping off the scales of protection from life, disconnecting the multi-tasking circuits. And He began to talk to me.

I am sure, completely and utterly sure that He talks to all of us most of the time. We are too dulled by our life to hear Him. But as the gray flesh of life began to peel away, I can only suppose that I was more open and uncluttered than I realized. He spoke to my heart, clearly, loudly, and startled me. What He said to me was so beautiful, so tender and so ultimately unexpected that I began to cry. And He continued to talk. I never wanted to stop walking, because He was so clear, so close, so available. He answered questions I have wondered about myself and my life's painful experiences in clear simplicity. He spoke of personal things, uniquely individual things.

This is one of the three golden times in my life. The three times (so far, I hope they continue) in which He very clearly met and talked to me. And after walking with the sole intent to hear Him, I lost ten pounds in ten days. How was this possible? It is not without Him. But with God, all things are possible and I truly had been with God. Those golden moments are transcribed forever in Heaven and I am eager to see them and know them again someday. But suffice it to say, I couldn't stop. I had to have that golden connection daily.

I began my walks at home, in my own dowdy neighborhood. But with Him, I was determined to be positive, pleasant and thankful. I discovered small charms beyond the trash in the ditch. Cool breezes, the house that is all garden and no yard owned by the man in the floppy hat, the ebb and flow of the creek under the bridge, the surprise discovery of an unreachable bunch of bittersweet. I discovered the cemetery, an amazing place I save for the best days. I found the park, the public rose garden, the shelter of the old rock pavillon on rainy days. He spread dew drops out like a diamond carpet. He asked me questions about the cemetery dead. He gave me gifts, He chastised me, He loved me. He told me to be quiet.

And O! How He has loved me. The bridal path, the bridal day, the bridal veil. The shooting star, the stone heart, the seed of light. All of these recorded in heaven for your curious mind to examine in the sweet by and by.

July 29th was the 30th anniversary of an auspicious day between us. So that is the date I labeled as the official start day. Now, on January 2nd - some 6 months later I have walked about 200 miles and have lost about 25 pounds and a lifetime of regret, sorrow, wounds and melancholy. The day I don't walk, pray and allow myself to be loved is a miserable day for me, for us all. I am frustrated, pre -menopausal, blue and questioning...no, whining. On the day I walk, pray, be loved and write I am fulfilled, golden, velvet, delighted and delightsome.

I didn't think I could make it eight miles a day, but I have. I didn't think I could walk in the rain, but I have. I didn't think I could walk in the cold, the snow or the wind, but I have. Now I am facing my greatest obstacle. A week of winter temperatures in the teens. Wind-chills making it below zero. I could pay for a daily pass to the fitness center, or drag the treadmill out of storage and put it into my tiny house in the middle of the room, or even trek out to the mall with the elderly mall walkers. But, in any of those environments can I pray? Like I do in the great outdoors where there is no one to see me murmur, cry, laugh. Where my mind can stay on Him and not grasshopper around to the new sights and distractions. Being faithful is so much easier in paradise.