Like most people, I learned to talk before I learned to type, but words have always flowed from my fingers more easily than from my mouth. I've been scribbling stories in my head all my life - mainly for my own entertainment, since my To Do List was always too full to do anything with my piles of prose.
Then life changed. Disease, death and divorce came upon one friend or family member after another. I had asked the LORD to allow me to be useful. He took me at my word, and overnight I ended up living outside the box by living out of packing cubes, crisscrossing the country from one crisis to the next.
My routine was stripped away along with any possessions that couldn't fit in an American Airlines approved purse and personal item. This year has reminded me of an excerpt from my experience on Amtrak:
"I had a lot of uninterrupted time while I was riding the train. I climbed aboard armed with a stack of reading materials that I wanted to tackle. An older man nearby caused me to look up when he said, "Excuse me, Miss. I don't mean to interrupt you, but we are about to pass through some of the prettiest parts of the country. I noticed you were wrapped up in your work. You might just want to look up now and again, or you'll miss it."
I thanked him, and thought, "Is he referring to this moment, or to my life in general?" Probably that moment, but it was one of those times when you know a statement is for your life.
Sometimes I can get so wrapped up in my to-do lists, that I miss the most beautiful parts of life.
I closed my book - and looked. At the canyons. At the cows. At the grass. At the big, blue, outstretched, glorious sky. At the beauty. There was much to see.
You can get a lot done while riding the train, but if you take the time, you can also see a lot. Taking the train may not be the fastest way to get from point A to point B, but sometimes the fastest way isn't the best way. Sometimes the most beautiful places can only be observed from the window of a slow moving train."
Life has been crazy this year, but it has been a slow crazy. Sickness, death and sadness can take a long time, but I have learned that there is beauty even in the midst of grief - and very often, laughter in tears.
