Ingredients of Life: The Missing One

This is technically not my #wednesdaywalk post. I did that yesterday! But I still am putting the tag in here so that people can read along if they like. I left a lot of people hanging with what the missing ingredient was. hahaha @tattoodjay I have already received a lovely upvote from you and the community, so please don't upvote again! Just come to read if you like!

As for yesterday, I was on a mission. A three-hour mission to get an ingredient that I had left out of my shopping cart the day before.

Before I continue, if you JUST WANT to look at the pictures - that's fine! Enjoy them hehehe This will be a longer post. lots of words. lots of silliness. lots of heart. But feel free to just scroll quickly and enjoy the pics :)

Back to my story!

The funny thing is - the ingredient that I forgot was THE MAIN ingredient in what I was making. My mind has been so preoccupied with every possible thing for the past 6 weeks, that this main ingredient managed to stay on the store shelves, and not end up in my cart! Funny how we run all around the store and still manage to miss the most important ingredient! hahaha

It made me think about life, and how we do that often with the most important things. Run around trying to find it, filling our carts with junk food and run right past what we were truly searching for!

I live in a beautiful, rural, top-of-the-mountain place. Though many people see pictures of where I live, they might not realize the very conscious choice we made (and continue to make) living so rurally. There are disadvantages, but overall, the trade-off is living in serenity. This is a picture I took last winter? It really is this idyllic. (and I do not like snow, 😆 but even I - the Snow Grinch - can't deny this beauty!)

There are many things that I do not like about the snow. I won't even list them all because this little guy below is one of the many things I do like about snow. hehehe I don't know if you can tell what size he is! I tried to make him look big! LOL But he really fit into my hands! hahahaha See his little acorn hat? LOLOL I clearly remember this day. I remember the sound of the snow crunching under my feet when I went off the road, and grabbed the snow to build my little friend. LOL I remember how hushed everything was. Have you ever noticed how different the air sounds when there is snow on the ground? Make a note to listen next time, you'll see!

When the snow melts and all that glorious water soaks into the ground, the sky above warms too! All the snow turns into water, and for a short season, our golden mountains turn bright green! It's still relatively cold, so we are treated to some blankets of fog creeping through the mountains.

As you can see above - there is also a little surprise that starts to show up! Rainclouds plus sunshine usually means.... RAINBOWS! I'm sure that I'm not the only one to get hearts in my eyes when a rainbow appears... hahahaha But I have to say, I just fall in love with God a little bit more every time. He knows how much I love them, and I can't help but feel that He puts them in the sky - just for me 😍

They seem to have a sweet, secret message for me, and for a season, they find me everywhere! hehehe

On this particular day that I took the picture below, I knew that there had to be something special waiting for me. After all, it's not every day that you get to see a double rainbow! See it? It's there! Keep looking until you spot it!

On the way home, sure enough! There it was!!! I had always known that there were pots of gold if you could follow the trail of the rainbow! And there!!! At the top of the mountain - it wasn't just a pot of gold - it was and entire mountain top of gold!!!! hehehe Honestly! Can you believe that shot? We just happened to catch the sun bursting through the clouds while the rest of the mountain was still clouded in shadow and this is what we saw! Doesn't it really look like a mountain of gold???

All we needed to do - was get to the top of the mountain! We were sure of it! hehehe Then my daughter and I could fill our pockets with treasure!!! LOL I'm teasing of course, but - my goodness, it really was a sight! The colors were just magnificent and this is one of the days where I was sorry my smartphone couldn't capture the fullness of what my eyes were feasting on!

You can't really see it but there is a pretty little creek rushing with water behind those trees.

This road is called Dry Creek Road - because, um. well.... hahahaha in California - we have a lot of heat, and little rain! So, for many months of the year - it is literally just a dry creek bed. But when the snows melt, it's just this rushing, full creek! Much to the delight of the cows who have lots of delicious cold water to drink.

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Now... back to all that treasure. My daughter and I could clearly see - if we could just make it to the top of the mountain, I'm sure we would have all the treasures we could possibly behold!!! :) But... when we were JUST about to reach the top, the dragon appeared and lit the sky on fire. You all know how dragons are when it comes to gold.

So, we had no choice but to leave it and talk about the beauty of our paradise home. It's funny because our house isn't a palace, and our town isn't the most beautiful place in the world. There are lots of things in our life that I'm sure many people would not choose.

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But for us, we didn't really need that dragon's gold. hehe Everyday, we try to find the missing ingredient that so many people chase after: Contentment. So many people (and yes, we fall prey to this too) fill their carts with all the junk food that the world says will satisfy. And they go racing right past the MAIN INGREDIENT, and leave it behind on the shelf. But the cool thing is. You can always go back to the store :) Even if its a 3-hour mission... you can always choose to get back in the car, drive down the mountain, enjoy the scenery, and wrap both hands around that can of contentment! hehehe

And don't forget... on your way down from the mountain,

Driving through the valley...

Be sure to look up from the road and catch the beauty and wonder all around you.