Beauty and 5+5=10

My family and I just spent the weekend at my uncle's mountain house in Sky Valley Georgia. We went with Matt and Rachel who are very dear friends.

The weekend started out horribly. We were planning on leaving Friday afternoon around 2 pm. Those plans were shot when my wife began vomiting Thursday night at 3 am. I stayed at home Friday to take care of her. We hoped we could leave Saturday morning. Luckily Matt and Rachel decided to go ahead and go up there on Friday so at least they were able to enjoy an evening up there by themselves.

Saturday morning, we hoped to get up early and arrive by 9 am. We left around 10 and got up there around noon. Also, my wife lost my iPod. My son asked to watch Star Wars Clone Wars TV show on the iPod going up there. So I synced my iPod and gave it to Amy. After being on the road for 10 minutes, we could not find it. So we went home and could not find it there. Even now after getting back home on Sunday, we still can't find it. We have no idea what she did with it.

I was feeling really cranky getting up there. We were late, I felt like we let Jonathan down by me telling him he could watch his favorite show, I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and we still had the stress of Amy's sickness hanging over us.

About halfway up the mountain, I started talking to God and asking Him why we were so late and why did all this stuff happened. I began to laugh as I remembered the interaction of Frodo to Gandalf when he first enters the shire...

Frodo: You're late.
Gandalf: A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.

That is what I felt like God was telling me. We weren't late by His time frame. We were going to arrive precisely when He wants us to. It was then I felt the stress sink away and felt like I could enjoy my weekend.

It was a great weekend. The fall colors were absolutely beautiful. We were probably one week away from peak color, but some parts north of Sky Valley, toward Highlands were at peak color. My wife and I totally enjoyed our time together, and with our kids, and with our dear friends.

To cap off the weekend, we had to take a quick detour on the way home and go back to Highlands to get my daughter a replacement mood ring since she lost the one she got on Saturday from rolling down the grass hill in the back yard. We found another ring and this one even fit better than the first one. On the way back home, we passed a closed down ski resort that obviously did not have snow but did have a large slide that kids could use to ride innertubes down the mountain. It had Jonathan's name all over it.

For a mere $15 Jonathan had 2 hours to ride a pulley up to the top of the mountain and then shoot down the hill on an innertube that slid along white astro-turf. There were hills and valleys and it looked like a blast. We could barely see him at the top of the hill.

It was hard to know which one was Jonathan, but we heard his laugh before we recognized his smile. He is just a sampling of things Jonathan yelled or later told us he wanted to yell next time he rode down the hill.

Cowabunga!
I am going to California!
"Wolf-sounds"
5 plus 5 equals 10!
4 plus 4 equals 8!
Screaming like a girl
California here I come!

I don't know why he felt the need to yell math equations. Maybe he thought that given the intelligence level of people in rural north Georgia, they could use a little brush up on their math skills. I don't know.

It's hard to go back to work to an awful economy, bad news everywhere, uncertainty, harsh political landscape, and just dismal feelings when you spend a weekend surround my people you love in one of the most beautiful environments spending time there laughing and just enjoying the company and scenery.

Maybe I should take solace in the fact that there are pockets in this difficult state of affairs in which I can feel the touch of God and see His awesome handiwork. That should be reason to rejoice rather that a reason to dread going back to the "real world". It's all the real world. The vacations, the beauty, the office drama, the scary economy,...it's all part of the same world. The same world that God has in the palm of His hand. The same God that created all that beauty and blessed me with such wonderful family and friends is the same God that is with me at work this week.

"... and that is a comforting thought." - Gandalf