The day my life started changing, I didn't set out looking for God.

I was laid off.

Instead, I grabbed a trash bag, a pair of gardening gloves, a bottle of water, and headed to the mountain trail behind my home.

For years I had said: "If I ever had the time, I should clean this place up."

Suddenly, I had time⏰ So I started picking up trash.

What I thought would be a quick cleanup turned into eight hours in the desert heat🥵

I climbed hillsides. Hung over rocky ledges. Filled bag after bag.

At one point I was reaching for a piece of trash when I looked up and found myself staring directly into the face of a coyote.

Oddly, I wasn't afraid. I felt peace ☮️

Years later I learned that coyotes often symbolize change and transition✨

That mountain was the beginning of one of the biggest transitions of my life.

What I didn't know that day was the date. May 14.

The anniversary of my mother's death.

I didn't realize it until I came off the mountain and texted my brother and sister.

"I felt Mom with me all day."

My sister replied: "Today is the anniversary of her passing."

I sat there stunned. No wonder I had felt her so strongly.

God had brought me to the mountain on the exact day my heart needed healing❤️‍🩹

The very first thing I picked up that morning was an empty pack of Marlboro Reds 🚬

My dad's brand.

Immediately memories came flooding back🌊

Running into the gas station with a five-dollar bill. Buying his cigarettes and newspaper.

Getting a little treat for myself.Today it was Lemonheads🍋

Then climbing into the front seat of our station wagon and sitting under his arm as we drove away.

Pure father-daughter love💕

But the memories didn't stop there. They led me to the pain. To the day he left.

To the hurt I had buried for years. To the feeling of being chosen second.

Standing on that mountain, holding an empty cigarette pack, I finally let myself feel it ❤️‍🩹

And I forgave him.

Not because what happened was okay. But because I didn't want to carry it anymore.

Then came my mother.

The guilt I carried for years. The regret of not being there when she died.

The feeling that I had run away after college and never looked back.

I have always been the runner.🏃‍♀️

That day on the mountain, she forgave me too.

Or maybe God finally helped me accept that I was already forgiven 🙌

At the same time, I was watching "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."

Every sermon at church seemed to be about forgiveness.

Everywhere I turned, God was repeating the same message.

Forgive. Release. Let it go.

And little by little, the weight I had carried for decades began to fall away.

What started as picking up trash became something much bigger.

Every trash can I placed on that trail became a reminder.

Not just to keep the mountain clean.

But to stop burying the pain we were never meant to carry.

Looking back now, getting laid off wasn't the end.

It was the beginning ☀️

God used a mountain trail, a trash bag, a coyote, a cigarette pack, and a broken heart to lead me back to Him✝️

I thought I was cleaning a trail.

Instead, He was cleaning me. ❤️

Litter for Life🗑️

How God Cleaned My Heart ❤️

While I Cleaned 🧼 a Trail

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

Psalm 51:10