Hey you’all! How is everyone? I ask that all the time and I truly mean it. Life has been a whirlwind as always. We have a gas shortage going on and people are grabbing gas just like they did toilet paper a year ago! Moved my youngest home from college from her sophomore year and my oldest is working and finding a balance in his life. I am beyond proud of them both and sometimes watch them with as much wonder as when they were little. How the navigate life and the individuals that they have grown to become. People may get tired of hearing about them and well prideful is supposed to be frowned upon, but honestly I would be proud of them no matter their path, no matter what, and well too bad if you don’t want to hear about them, I will keep talking about them. It has been the three of us for almost 18 years and we may not have all we wanted but we had what we needed and we have grown and thrived. My son has had his share of difficulties and challenges, but his heart is thoughtful, he sees things in a way I never thought to look at a certain way. He sometimes struggles with daily activities we take for granted but in other ways he excels. My daughter has grown up with just a mother, she is smart and sets goals and achieves them and then some. She is smarter and braver than I was at her age, she also has a heart for people, a laugh that makes my heart happy. I am blessed. Anyways I could talk about them all day! Back to my rambling thoughts, although they do tie in I promise.
Yesterday I moved my daughter home from college. Two years down and two to go! She goes to school in a bigger city then where we live. She gives me grief when I get a little anxious driving in said city. I think I am a good driver, known to have a heavy foot at times, known to have car karaoke while driving. I can tell you this….give me a country road any day over five lanes of people who are beyond aggressive, beyond speed demons. I was up to 85 (yes 15 above the speed limit) and I was being passed like I was standing still! Give me a country road with curves that remind you of a smile, slowly unfolding. The sun shining through the tree canopies above your head and the birds singing a song. I will take that anyday over that traffic yesterday!
Then as we were packed up our little caravan of two heading back to the mountains we call home, I thought about alot of things. I thought about how we take so many things for granted. Here I was calling fellow drivers assholes because they passed four lanes of traffic and made me clutch my pearls, and in Israel rockets rain down, lives are lost, grudges and hate run higher than the RPMs on 85. Can you imagine what they are going through right now? Sirens of impending rockets, children with no sense of security, fearing they may die or their parents may die. This is going on and the world plays politics. I believe no one should turn their back on Israel, that is biblical and I believe it with my heart. Here I am trying to follow my girl home, being the anchor on our trip watching out for her as she speeds ahead and some moms kiss their kids and pray they will see them again that same day. We get so busy running around in life and think we have all the answers, that we will always have time to say something, to tell someone what they mean. Watching the violence unfolding not only in Israel but our whole world, well my thoughts are don’t let words go unsaid, don’t put things off until the next day. We don’t live in an active war zone, but we live in a world that is ready to fight over everything!
Which then takes me back to the gas shortage. Guess people never thought a closed pipeline would truly mean as much as it does right now. Not just the one that was hacked but the other pipeline that was shut down while a foreign country was given millions to maintain their pipeline. Ok I will stop there with that political point. People are in panic mode. They say 75% of our gas stations in this state are without gas. There is a video of a man filling water bottles with gas, another woman putting gas in a Rubbermaid container. It is like when the pandemic first started, toilet paper, canned goods, meat flew off the shelf. No care or concern for anyone but themselves. The shortage here is because everyone is panicking. Instead of topping off or $20.00 worth, people are driving the panic. Think about the people in other countries who don’t even have a car or would like this as their biggest problem while they arrive for shelter and food. The nature of people never ceases to astound me. Yes I worry I won’t have gas to get to work. If I don’t work I lose time and money. BUT, there is this thing called faith and doing the best you can. I was worried about using gas for the round trip yesterday, but being there for my girl and trusting it would be ok, well that outweighed my worry and my hoarding. And believe me I can be a worrier!
So as we were flying down the road, my thoughts flew just as hard! That those drivers that made my butt cheeks clinch, are just a small portion of greater humanity. Those hoarding gas are a small portion of humanity. They each are in this ME bubble and that is truly sad. We are becoming a ME world, more so now than ever. So how do you navigate that world let alone teach your kids. Then you think have I taught them enough? Have I learned enough? Then I realized that there is never enough learning and once we stop learning, we stop. Once we stop feeling we become bitter. Once we stop caring we become isolated. So we have been so isolated over this past year, it is about time we start caring again! I know not everyone feels that way and well bless your heart is all I have to say. To care means to be vulnerable, it means to feel, it means to put ME behind WE. Think again about Israel. Think about your big world problems right now and do they even compare to rockets being sent to destroy you because of such deep seated hate! Think about the hate going on in our country. There is always a pot stirrer and it is about time that pot stirrers start licking the spoon! Yes I thought alot while cursing and dodging wanna be race car drivers. Yes I said what I said lol. My biggest concern was having the two of us move her out of her dorm and be home in time to get my son from work and well that was minimal in comparison to other people’s worries and struggles yesterday! I have been so blessed through our struggles. I have been given so much in life. How about you? Do we focus on the negative or do we see the beauty in the struggle? Do we open our minds and hearts or do we stay in the pandemic bubble? My life is far from perfect, I am not perfect. Are you? I would bet not. But these past couple of weeks I have realized alot, realized how blessed I am. I reflected on alot and my smile unfolded as I climbed the mountain home yesterday, the rolling hills and the pace of life I have been given. Most importantly the people in my life, every single one!! So as you talk to those that matter to you, let them know they matter. Let them know what you think, drop the ME bubble, drop the fear of judgement and disdain and think about those that dwell where Jesus walked who don’t know when they will see peace again or see their loved one. Think of those that protect and serve in our military, our law enforcement and first responders, the sacrifices they and their families sacrifice on a daily basis. Think about the blessings we consider inconsequential, those are the biggest blessings! And I am reminding myself of that everyday! And yes as we all three live under the same roof again and run out of hot water and dirty dishes may pile up or that quiet Sunday afternoon nap may not happen, and work exhausts me, I smile at the people that are at my table, the ones in my circle, the ones my heart beats for. How about you? The storms aren’t always equal in life as we each have our own storms to battle, but how we reach the shore and who is there waiting makes that storm less intimidating. And that storm always has a blessing, that storm is there to teach and grow and become closer that we hold close. Atleast that is what I think. How about you?