Serenity Road | Staci Wilder

August 2, 2010 @ 6:05 am | Filed under: Pure Sunshine,Soul Food,Uniquely Me

Setting out for the long drive, I settled familiarly into the passenger seat with all of my traveling accoutrements: a couple of books, a lap quilt, my iPhone, and a pile of magazines. A few miles in, though, along Highway 16, and it’s clear I’m not interested in any of these distractions.

A few turns and we top a hill and there lies…the most majestic view ever.

GLIMPSES has – over time – become the spot where I leave insights into things I consider beautiful and meaningful. Places, people, cirumstances – that speak to me. When I sit down to write – to paint the portrait in the window of life of that day, I discover there are colors I didn’t know existed.

I have begun to see life more beautifully and find myself appreciating so much more.

This, I realize, is one of those moments…

We drive further. The trees get lusher and thicker as stores and gas stations grow more sparse. The traffic is light and our fellow road companions seem about as mellow as we do on this day. It’s definitely enough to make me believe Robert Frost was on to something when he penned “The Road Not Taken…”

I choose to write about the good, to catalog the beautiful…and by doing so, the bad has all but disappeared, even in my mind.

My soul has settled into a grateful place. A very, very good place to be.

And grateful places need good rest. But before good rest comes our acknowledgement of good things.

We glimpse it then. The sign. And we made the turn, almost without talking about it first, and certainly without giving it much thought. The lane was just too irrisistible, too inviting.

We heeded the beck and call, following the distant, dusty trail that pointed us about as far past civilization and noise and busyness as we could possibly get…past the traffic, the stores, the lures of anything else we’d planned for this trip.

And we pulled off of the planned – the purposed – and took a moment to breathe in serenity. Places of serenity are the spots where you find fresh inspiration, and these wells need to be mined for all they’re worth. They appear every so often along our path and, if we can see them for what they are and drink them in, then Serenity Road is a road well-traveled.

I am refreshed and excited.

To tackle it all. Because I’ve done it so far and the satisfaction of pulling it off ignites me to keep doing it. I’m actually looking forward to some crazy organization days ahead…finishing Summer II classes…delving into the big middle of the current novel I’m trying to write…preparing for the exciting yet challenging changes in MJ’s job and travel schedule…getting my resume and letter of introduction ready to send…carving out some new beautiful traditions for our family this fall…cooking…and spending as much time as possible with the kids and the grands in the coming weeks.

All this busyness and craziness will be good for us. Because you know what? This is just life, and this is how life rolls. It’s kind of like the road before us…this road I’ve dubbed Serenity. It has ups and downs and twists and turns. It grabs my stomach when I least expect it and gives me more reasons to smile than to frown.

Things will slow down, and oh don’t you know we will graciously welcome the lull when it comes. But, for now, it’s okay. Because we are together and we are happy and there are a hundred moments a day when we can stop what we are doing in exchange for something quick and simple.