ONE STEP🥾 EXTRA

Starla Stanley
Oct 2, 2019
5 min read

My spouse and I chose to go to national parks at the end of September expecting it to be a good time to avoid crowds😂. To our surprise areas around the parks were sold out and the parks were packed🤷‍♀️. We had limited time in each park since we were hitting four national parks in three days. We asked the ranger in Bryce Canyon National park what he would recommend if we only had half a day in the park. He asked us if we are okay getting into the park early the next morning. We said of course. He gave us a five mile trail from Bryce point back to the visitors center hitting a lot of the main sites along the way. He looked up the sunrise and told us to be on the trail at 7am. Sunrise was at 7:04am. We woke up at 5:45 am at our KOA and when we walked out to the truck we were both shocked to find it was 17 degrees and pitch black out🤦‍♀️! As we headed to the park I spoke up “wow, I had no idea it would be this cold. I was thinking 42 degrees before the sun came up. To be honest there is a part of me that wants to go back to camp and get back in bed and come back to the park around ten when the sun ☀️⛰🙏warms things up”. My husband in shorts and a light long sleeve shirt said “I feel the same.” However he kept driving towards the park. We kept watching the temperature in the car and it dropped to 16 degrees and then came up to 20 degrees. We laughed getting excited it got to 20 degrees. We parked at the lot the ranger told us to start our run on and it was pitch black with an orange line over the mountains in the East. Scott said “I am not getting out of this car until 7:05, the ranger said sunrise is at 7:04 that will start warming things up.” 😂At 7:05 we started our run, 25 degrees and not dressed for it. Two minutes into it we realized we had the whole national park to ourselves. Literally. No one was on the trail until the last half mile. We didn’t mind our hands and cheeks freezing (both set of cheeks😂) we were in awe of the majestic setting. We had the best jog/walk/stop and take it in/ take pictures/ watch birds/ be still and listen to nature morning. We will always remember it.

The morning before we got up early to get to Arches national park early and be on the trail at the Fiery Furnance at 7am. Meaning up at the KOA in Moab by 5:45 am to get to the trail head by 7am. We had the whole fiery furnace by ourselves and watched a sunrise on the red rock in Arches National Park. When we walked out of the Fiery Furnace people were parking and some staring to come to the trail. Scott and I smiled with joy knowing we got to watch the rocks light up with the sunrise and we shared the whole experience alone with each other and nature. As we were in Bryce on trails in the middle of hoodoos I said to my spouse “thank you for always being willing to take the extra step with me!💗” We could have stayed in bed until it warmed up like the rest of the park visitors but then we would have been on the trails with the shuttle loads, bus loads and car loads of people that we ran into as we left the park that morning at 9:30 am. It is easy to choose the path of least resistance!🤷‍♀️ I have done it all too often only to regret later what I missed out on. I know what it is too have valid reasons. We all do. Health, finances, time, trials, kids, etc.

I was filled with such gratitude for all the amazing things in my life that have come from just taking one more step🎉. It made me ponder?

What can I take one more step in to have more joy in my life ?

It takes time to reach out to build friendships. It takes more energy to build intimate personal relationships with your adult children. It takes effort to make the time to keep your personal life centered. Never does the time to do something come easily. There are so many days calling it a night and going to bed sounds like the best choice for my body! My body for some reason constantly hurts in varying levels of pain from an immune system that just doesn’t want to run 100 percent. I AM tired. At any given time I AM tired. I am often in pain and often have two to three illnesses I am battling. I have a choice to let my physical body define me or to choose to live regardless of my imperfections and lack of abilities. Doctors say MS, immune issues all they know is proof of what isn’t working from lab work over and over and biopsies but what the cause is is a different story depending on what DR. Welcome to immune deficiency issues. Lol Some days I give in and stop taking the next step and I quit. 🤦‍♀️I am sad and wish I had connected more, served more, loved more. Then there are those days when I take the extra step. I take a quick power nap so I can meet up with my daughter in law to hike and visit to build a deeper relationship. I step one more step and read my scriptures asking God to fill me with HIS light when my energy is gone.

What areas are you missing out of in life because you say no to the next step? The next time I want to say enough, I am going to recall these two mornings in nature that were a once in a lifetime experience that I will treasure forever. I am going to remind myself to take the next step to open experiences that will last a life time. As I said to my husband less then half a mile on our jog “I don’t care that I am freezing Scott, I have never seen anything like this and we are the only people here taking this in with God. It is amazing”

TAKE THE EXTRA STEP

LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST

MAKE MEMORIES THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME💗

with love from St George where I am seeing the three plays at the Tuachan theater🎉Tonight I am headed to The Sound Of Music🎵 one of my favorites.