The peak of Mount Waialeale in Kauai is often shrouded in clouds that make it one of the rainiest spots on earth. These mountain rains create spectacular waterfalls on the face of the lush green cliffs. On a backcountry tour, a truck drove us through verdant growth followed by a float down canals built by early sugar plantation workers that were fed by those same rain waters.

The next day, not far from where we had tubed, we drove to Waimea Canyon, where parts of the landscape looked more like our arid, rugged desert home in Utah. A stark contrast to the greenery of the day before, I thought of the various landscapes that exist simultaneously in our lives. Deep, cutting wounds that miraculously can bring their own refined stability standing side by side with the beauty created by the constant flow of blessings from our Heavenly Father. The two scenes, however, do not stand alone, they are intertwined as the remnants of the mountain rains flow through the gorge creating rivers of life winding through the canyon.