MyLeslieNotebook

"Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another...[t]he Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases...[t]hese women were helping to support them out of their own means," (Luke 8:1-3). I love a group of women. Though one-on-one coffee chat is awesome, my heart is for a big group of ladies talking, eating, telling stories, and laughing so hard they just might pee on themselves. (And sometimes we do. No shame.) I love being around women who are real with themselves, real with each other, and real with their struggles and heartache and triumphs.  And I wish I had known those women from Luke 8. Can't you just see them? Making sure the men washed their clothes often enough to not stink too bad. Making sure Jesus had a decently balanced diet, because heaven knows the Twelve with him would have settled for whatever the equivalent of chips and pizza was back then. I bet they worked their tails off, and we know they use

Mount of the Holy Cross, 2015 The moment I first saw this view is forever etched in my memory. I was walking a beautiful trail, accompanied by some of my favorite people in the whole world, mentally preparing for the hike ahead.  Our only goal: get to the top of Mount of the Holy Cross. We had started hiking at daybreak and before we'd been walking an hour, we could see the peak. Yep, you guessed it: it's the giant one in the distance.  I'd done this type of hiking before. And though I had mentally prepared for the hours and hours of strenuous hiking, it hit me hard when I could see the peak, so far away : this is going to be worse than I thought .  [I've blogged about this very hike before; you can read it here .]  It's not that I didn't know what was coming; we had read the descriptions: twelve miles total, with major gains and losses in altitude both ways. We'd taken some training hikes back home, and we had plenty of water and food to last th