Cleaning out the van the other day and there it was. The DVD of Finding Nemo that we thought we had lost or loaned away.
Clearing my desk a few weeks ago and there it was. An un-deposited check that would help to pay a bill.
Looking in the storage unit for the extra seat for the van we just sold… and there it was, a favorite toy of our daughter.
Organizing my books in our new book and there THEY were! All the books I was going to get around to reading.
Don’t even get me going on what might be on those back up hard drives!
There are people diving deep into the oceans looking for treasures. Maybe we don’t need to go to deep water to find them. Maybe the some of the most valuable things we would like to find our hidden from our view because of other stuff.
I was looking for a deeper connection to our 16-year-old son the other day.
He was bummed because he had just gotten his license and wrecked the family car 2 days later.
I was just grateful no one was hurt and that he was OK.
But he wasn’t OK…. he was distant and discouraged.
And my attempts to connect and left his spirits seemed to be falling flat.
I wished I could just fly with him to New York and watch a Broadway Play (his favorite thing in the world). But this was not possible. I thought of several things like this …but the messy schedules we had didn’t make it possible. I finally was able to clear my mind(clean up the mess) and then felt to offer him the same chance.
“Hey son, why we take a drive in this cool new rental car and push all the buttons, open the sun roof and turn on some tunes. Let’s go for a joy ride.”
Dad, whats a joy ride? (dang it I am old)
I attempt to explain, “A joy ride is just driving without intending to go anywhere — you just drive, empty your mind of worry, let thoughts come and go and enjoy the drive. “
Sounds great Dad…let’s go.
And we drove, and we drove and listened to ZZ TOP and other songs from when I wasn’t old. There was a guy selling Jerky by the side of the road and we stopped and talked with him and bought some. And then we drove and pushed all the buttons and chewed on jerky. And there was a guy by the side of the road selling bee pollen and honey…. and we bought some and then we listened to some of Josh’s music. And Josh said, “I’m glad we did this Dad, I like Joy Riding”.
And I thought about how much I love him and about how much I will treasure this drive….for a long long time.
And I thought about how easy it is to lose site of the most important things in our life because of the mess.
Clean Your Room, Clear Your Mind, and Enjoy the Ride…
Mzsunflower's Say What? 