Gifts

Last week I spent three days in Grand Marais, one of my favorite places in Minnesota. I had a few free days and wanted to get some northern Minnesota time in before beginning radiation.

I love nature. To me, it is very therapeutic. I remember when I had leukemia, I was in the hospital for over three weeks during the month of May. When I came home, my parents got me a swing for a yard that I just sat in every day, soaking up the sun and the fact that I was alive and healthy. This year, I realized that "nature therapy" needed to be part of my prescription for remission and complete and total health.

I drove up to Grand Marais on Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, I walked around town a bit and found a place to eat breakfast. I sat outside, looking at the harbor on a gorgeous day, and thought not just that this is beautiful, but "This is cleansing."

The Superior Hiking Trail Association has a Seven Summits Challenge, they name seven summits along the length of the trail, and if you hike to the top of at least five, you can earn a free poster. For me, it just seemed like a good idea to explore different parts of the trail. I had already hiked Mount Trudee (in Tettegouche State Park) in June. So Thursday morning I hiked to Pincushion Mountain, followed by Lookout Mountain. Friday I drove along the Gunflint Trail looking for wildlife and eating berries (I did hike to Magnetic Rock - not part of the challenge), then Saturday I hiked to Oberg Mountain and Moose Mountain before heading home. I didn't see any large mammals, but I did see bear scat, wolf tracks, and multiple species of birds, amphibians, and plants. As I was hiking on Saturday, I saw an all white plant called Indian Pipe - it feeds on decaying matter and is unusual in that it doesn't contain any chlorophyll. Then I saw a small Wood Frog. I started thinking of all these great things I was seeing as gifts.

Shortly after I turned around to head back to the trailhead, it started to rain. It had been cloudy when I set out, and I had been hearing thunder for the past hour, so I was ready with raingear. Even so, I got wet. My first instinct was to complain about the rain, but I decided to think of the rain as a gift as well - I'm alive, able to hike, see all this beauty around me, feel the rain.

Eventually I made it back to my car and headed for home. I turned on the radio, where I learned exactly how timely my thoughts of life's gifts had been - I learned about the death of Amy Winehouse at 27, and the deaths of numerous Norwegian youths from a shooting.

Life is a gift, and we should cherish each day.