Over the past few weeks, I’ve been absolutely inspired by friends taking beautiful hikes and finding blooms in the desert. I wanted so badly to find the poppies and lupine in bloom.

Two friends, both named Jennie, spoke of hikes near Cave Creek that were stunning. On Tuesday morning, we set off to find flowers. I was armed with my camera, extra juice boxes, and a heart full of hope.

We started off on the Ocotillo Trail off of the Apache Wash Trailhead. The weather was perfect and the trail was beautiful, but I didn’t see any flowers.

I love hiking on trails with the kids, because even if they get pretty far in front of me, they are easy to spot.

We came to a fork on the trail and I let Mary Alice choose which way to go. By this time, I had decided to draw on a smile and stop worrying about finding flowers.

We headed to the right and Mary Alice was more than happy to be the leader.

We marched up the hill for another ten minutes and I decided it was time to turn around before I ended up carrying two preschoolers down the hill on my own.

We ran into a mother and her daughter and she told me we were just four steps and one right turn away from a valley of poppies!

I’m sure there is a beautiful scripture somewhere about what happened that morning – “consider the lilies of the field” or “those who wait upon the Lord” or “do not be anxious about anything”, but all I know is that my dear Savior sent me a beautiful love letter that morning.

His creation is here. It is blooming and all around us. We just need to look up and take one step at a time. Listen to mothers and smile at one another.