Filled Up With Joy

As imagined in the dark last night, opened our windows this morning to the most amazing views, ribbons of pink mist draped across rocky mountains, and a church that looked like it belonged in Germany, the sun warming the golden stone, the half moon in the blue sky above, the Lake like a mirror. The main photo is of where the old village of Riaño used to be, before the waters rose and submerged it in 1987.

Lent verse today, Romans 15v13:

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!


And that prayer was answered, today, for me. We drove through such dramatic beauty in the Picos de Europa, an extra of some of the higher peaks, with snow. I walked on snow! We saw golden eagles flying above and below us. We heard choughs cawing. We saw a chamois on a high, rocky ledge. We picnicked by a stream. Drove through a limestone gorge, towering up on both sides. Miniature daffodils on the heights and clumps of primroses. Not sure I've ever seen more beautiful scenery, and mostly, not another soul in sight. Really. If you've never been, put it on your bucket list.


A day like that filled me up and has stayed through even more drastic measures here in Spain. Eventually found a room in a hotel, it will close tomorrow. Nowhere open to eat, and just discovered the hotel won't be serving breakfast tomorrow. Ferry supposedly still going...


Gratefuls:
- the stunning Picos de Europa, and we only saw one small part
- hearing a strange noise, going to our window, and realizing folk were clapping and whistling from their balconies and windows, a way of keeping spirits up, learned from Wuhan, when everyone is confined to their flats. Found it very moving, and feel privileged to have joined in and been a part of it this night
- a travel kettle, teabags, and snacky bits