Little Big Town

Sometimes country songs put it best. I can't recall which song the title line is from, but I'm sure it's out there. People wonder and have a hard time grasping why others enjoy country music. Some people can't get over the twang, others consider the style crude and words just plain silly. Well, for all you country haters out there those are exactly why I love it. What's better than a banjo to add to the country twang of a singer's voice? Where else can you express your love and hate for your own culture and people so openly or voice how you feel about your beloved farm animal (and horses are in there of course) without criticism? Only with country music.
Now, I don't really listen to it all that often anymore, but I enjoy it and it has it's time and place. Where is that place? Well next time you drive through the flat open country of the midwest or take a turn around a familiar bend that leads you towards home, that's when you seek the radio to find the first upbeat country song you can. If you are anywhere close to that feeling and place then don't worry, it won't take long for the stations to pour forth the sweet melody of a country song.
It is good to be back around a familiar place. Always comforting to drive somewhere without much thought. Always nice to have people within a 2 min walk to meet up for a run, a trip to downtown, pizza, favorite restaurants, whatever. I love driving and being able to tell someone how or a way to get to anyplace in the city they would want to go...and I haven't even lived here for a full two years probably. That's what we call a little big town. Having connections with someone you meet in the grocery store, though you are in the 12th largest city in the US, yes, that's a little big town.
I guess no matter where I'm at it is always nice to come home. No matter where I live next, I know God will provide community and a chance to feel known if I only allow it. That's right, they play country all over the US...and even in different countries...hmmm...I'm gonna have to investigate that further next time I'm in Central America :) Pretty sure that is not the case in Africa though, as where we will be they probably don't have any radio in the way we know it...?? hhmmm...it's all up in the air,i'll let you know what we do find.

Home Sweet Home

Well, if you know me, then you probably know I love adventure and travel. Sometimes these are the same thing, sometimes they are completely different, but most of the time I'd say the two are combined. Take the past two weekends for instance. Two weekends ago I went for an adventure, but I had to travel to get there. What did we find you might ask? [pictured left] Havasu Falls, which is located at the end of the 10 mile Havasupai hike that we did while carrying 30lb packs. Yes, that's an adventure. I could write a small novel about our trip there, the amazing Godly people I experienced it with, and the ways we worshiped God though that experience, but it would take too long and it would talk a lot about poop and I don't know if Mr. G could handle much more of that kind of talk. :)

Now, up this past weekend, which just ended, but I am still celebrating seeing as I have a week off! wooo! The past two days Dad and I have driven across the country from Cali to IN. Yes, it's a long drive. Yes, my butt is numb and even now I am kneeling instead of sitting at the computer so as to avoid a stage 2 pressure ulcer (I did weight shifts while driving, OTs and PTs be glad). That's besides the point. That was travel, but a bit of adventure thrown in there to see if two daring souls could indeed make it in 33 hours according to map quest. Well, we made it in 36. We blame the snow on the roads in Wyoming and Nebraska for two of those hours. And if you factor in our meal stops, which weren't many, there's the rest of it. The treck across the northern states was so fitting as Shawn McDonald's "Time" played in my ears. Based on Ecclesiates 3, which is one of my favorite parts of Eccles. "for everything there's a reason, for everything there's a rhym, for everything there's a season, for everything there's a time." I love it because it gives me freedom to go through those times. I can praise God in everything. He knows I need to weep, laugh, plant, uproot, mourn, dance, keep and throw away, be silent and speak, embrace and refrain, love and hate. Wow! basically God created all those things in us and with our will enveloped in His we still are allowed to experience those things. Then the seasons come and go, they come and go in different times at different places...we drove out of late summer, through winter, and into full blown fall. I arrived home last night past dark, but when I woke up this a.m. I saw it all. Who wouldn't like waking up to this blast of color on the trees that expand as far as I can see and seperate field and house and lake? (Realize the picture doesn't do it justice, as they never do.) There's something about coming home, being home. I was sitting here doing devotions this a.m. with the colorful backdrop and contemplating that phenomenon. No matter the beauty I've seen, the mountains I've conquored, the people associated with those places, nor the ways God has moved there, I will always see this part of the country as the most gorgeous. I love the golden fields in fall, the smell of sunshine on the stalks in the summer, the way the roads are worn and known by me in the countryside, the people that live here and are family even if not by birth. Here I am known (maybe not fully as I change and so do they as I am gone, but my past is here and present when I get to return), here I am comfortable, and here I wonder how awesome it will be in Heaven when we are truly home for good.
Here, I'm not so super excited to go running for it is chilly, but I will...because I've been in a car for more hours than my conscious can comprehend...I think i've already started to block it out! oh no! hahaha...
So, with my California dusted running shoes I will take a tour of these familiar roads. I will rejoice b/c my body is going to feel great and I am anticipating a carry-over from all my hill work on the Quicksilver hills with slight elevation and henceforth laugh at the two upslopes that I know await me on the block to the south. Ha you little little hill, I scoff at you. My lungs will laugh once at the top of you. Take that paved hill, take that.