I missed a day blogging.  I was on a pretty good stretch there for awhile.  I shall try to resume my faithfulness.  It seemed a few things  beyond my control were happening and the evening got away from me without a blog AND WITHOUT A POEM!

Today felt like a bit of a holiday after the beginning of the week.  It seemed I had so much to do on the computer for planning the rest of the trip that I felt like I actually needed a holiday.  So today I took it.  Probably not much of a holiday to brag about but I slept in!  The latest yet!  It was after 8:30 a.m. before I awoke.  Then I commenced to sorting through ALL MY PARAPHERNALIA, most of which I don’t need; trashed some, packed up tight some of the other, and organized all the rest for the days ahead.  I have two more places where I will be staying longer than two nights.  When I stay two night someplace that gives me one entire day to enjoy who I am with.  Arrive in the evening, go to bed, enjoy a day, sleep, and get  up and leave.  Sometimes too short.  Sometimes just right, Sometimes too long?  It’s never too long for me but that probably depends on parallax of the host.  I’ve enjoyed everyplace I have been and all who I have been with.  And, it never fails, I learn something each place I go.  Sometimes I learn things that I’m not quite ready to share.  Things about myself that I probably wish I didn’t have to learn.  Actually, I hope I never get too old or too closed mind to keep learning about the world and about my personal self.  The more we expose ourselves to others, the more we have our eyes opened, about both ourselves and the other.  It is the lessons that ones learns about self that are sometimes the most difficult to learn.  But, like I said, everyday I am learning.

I thank God for every experience on this journey.   I have seen incredible work of nature’s art with God’s byline on each exhibit.  Oh how I have loved the mountains and the sheer walls of granite and the beautiful softness of the green of the forest, the amazing girth of the Sequoia Giants, and the thunder, lightening, and downpour of a summer storm.  I have experienced the view of horses grazing in soft pastures surrounded by the ruggedness of mountain peaks scaling the sky just a few hundred feet away.  I have the seen the sky so dark with the cover of a cloud filled night that the blackness was impenetrable. And I have experienced the fierceness of planets and stars and satellites glimmering like glowing white diamonds,  so close  you feel as if you could reach up and touch one.  I have watched the wildlife in abundance fighting the survivor dance against prey that would take their life in a split second should they drop their guard.   And I have been on freeways of 12 lanes going in one directions with cars being driven by maniacs fighting the same fight.  I have heard the sound of great waves crashing against giant boulders protruding from the ocean floor and the gentle sound of the patter of rain on a window.    And as I look back, and remember and think about what I have experienced, I have a great joy wash over me because I know I have more to come.

Though my trip is “officially: 2/3 lived I still have 1/3 to go if I live on this earth long enough.  And if I don’t live on this earth long enough, just imagine all that I will be experiencing in heaven.  My time the past two months has passed so quickly and I know the last third will probably pass even faster (sort of like how the years speed up as you age), but I plan to enjoy each and every moment.  PLAN is the operative word.  I choose to enjoy.  My attitude says I WILL ENJOY.  I intentionally believe that I will enjoy every single moment.  That means the packing, the loading up, the unloading, writing my blog, doing things differently, eating different kinds of foods, meeting people I don’t know, driving long hours on twisting mountain roads, sleeping in new beds every other night or so, not knowing what to expect, I STILL EXPECT I WILL ENJOY EVERY MOMENT!  And that also means the times the Lord is teaching me, something new, or something old that I just haven’t got the hang of yet.  Sometimes it’s those “old” things that take the most teaching, over and over and over…..And I say, Thank You Lord for loving me enough to teach me until I get it right!

So, tomorrow morning I will pack up my car and hit the road once again.  And this moment will be gone.  So I look forward and never back.  My memories will stay with me, all the smiles I have tucked into my heart along the way, the lessons I’ve learned, the confidences that have been shared, the places I’ve gone, the people I’ve met, the pictures I’ve taken, but this particular moment of time and place will be gone, and will be cherished.  I say goodbye once again to those I love. Not with sadness, but with joy for all the hours and moments we have shared.  A simple space in time where our lives have once again crossed, once again influenced each other, shared both laughter and tears, joys and sorrows.  And I leave a better person for having lived these past days with my extended family.  I can only hope that their lives have been blessed by mine.  I hope they have learned something from me as I have from them.  Thank you cousins for your love and generosity and hospitality!

I look forward to tomorrow and the next day.  I will be reunited with my new love!  This time a new place, a new state, and more of God’s exquisite artwork.  I am going to the coast.  Not just any coast, BUT THE OREGON COAST.  I hear it is spectacular!  What can I say?  I just love the ocean.

From the time I was 6 until I was 12 we lived in a little town that was caressed by the San Francisco Bay waters.  It might as well been the mightiest ocean because it was too far to see across. It had a sandy little beach (that seemed big at the time) and one lone tree.  I thought it was paradise.  It was about 1 to 2 miles away.  When I could walk I would trek there on a summer day with my cousins who came over the summer holiday and we would stay most of the day.  We were all under about 9 years old and we would be there all day, by ourselves, no adult supervision, and come home blistered by the sun rays.  And we survived.  We had fun.  And we suffered with our sunburns afterward.  My mother once told me that if I ever got sunburned again she would give me a spanking I would’t forget once the sunburn was healed.  I never let myself get sunburned again on that beach.  (Later on other beaches??  Yes).  Those days on the beach are wonderful memories.  There was just one thing, there were no large, frothing, menacing waves.  I enjoyed the beach but my love affair with the ocean didn’t really begin until my cousin Bill took me to see Monterey and Big Sur.  Oh WOW!  My heart did a flip flop and I’ve been hooked every since.  There was a much shorter way to go on tomorrows trip that drive all the way over to the coast to tag along with the ocean on Hwy 101.  But I have been assured it will be worth it.  So…I’m going for it.  Three hours of winding, winding, mountain roads before the ocean comes in view.  I’ve been looking at those mountains for the past two weeks so I might as well go and get acquainted with them.  I look forward to the mountains too.  There are two hours of layover Monday through Saturday for construction work.  Sunday has no lay over.  Thus, I am driving on Sunday.

There is another story about the ocean I would like to share, but not now.  It is a story of the supernatural and miracles.  I’ll tell you another day.  It is getting late, and I Must go to bed as I must get up early.  Good night.

EVERY MOMENT JUST A LOAN

Kathleen Martens

May 30, 2015

Tomorrow’s hour of early morn

Time of renewal, a new day born.

What awaits is unknown,

Every moment just a loan.

Give to God what is His

And that goes without a quiz.

For every moment He paid the price

Through His son’s sacrifice.

Glory goes to God our King

And to remember this one thing.

His love surpasses understanding

And is never, ever commanding!

He asks that you would come

Sit awhile, meet His son.

The only way to heaven’s door.

Sit a spell, He’ll tell you more.