Two Boys and a Day to Go Exploring!

We shared our weekend with a dear friend from back home. What fun to be able to share some of our new world with John as he traveled through the West. For John, this was a trip to bring back old memories. He fondly shared stories with our family of the trip West he made with his parents and brother Ed. To ride in a train across the West and experience the wonders it held at the young age of 12! How exciting it is for him to visit years later some of these memories. As I have spoken before, this is a whole new world and it was fun to share these similiar feelings with a friend. John and I caught up on life as we drove up into the foothills of the Sierras yesterday. Was it the beauty of all the wildflowers splashed across those foothills, or the brook you could hear running beside the outdoor cafe where we spent time talking over lunch that brough us back to that familiar conversation of traveling to "new worlds" over and over again! To hear Wayne and John recount their hike through Yosemite and their amazement of the power at the base of the waterfalls is exciting and can allow a listener to close their eyes and hear and see it all! Yet how many times do we travel to these "new worlds" and never take the time to notice? Must we travel to a new planet or another country, or just across 2000 miles of land to reach this new world? Can we find these new worlds sitting just outside our doors if we only took the time to stop and get off this busy ride we call life. How many of us spend our lives saying "someday..." as each day rushes by. I know I fall guilty of this. When I thinkof the beauty of the many paths I have walked, I am amazed to find I have already passed through so many, many new worlds. Did I take the time to see all there was to see and experience the places I have lived and traveled? If I think back to just even our last home and the many wonderful roads we traveled, I am warmed by the memories of all the beautiful worlds within that space. To walk bythe brook in Oakdale as the light trickles through the leaves above! To sit next to the fountain in the pagoda my husband, children and I built! To sit in the warmth of the sun on benches made with boards and straw as we listen to the beauty of the music and people of Willow! To sit in the seats in the darkness of the auditorium to be taken away by the creations of Jill and the movement of the dancers of Studio 121! To walk the fields of the corn growing around you as the grasshoppers jump about! To sit in candlelight surrounded by the smell of flowers , the sweet scent of candles burning, and the stars shining overhead as neighbors share their stories gathered around our front porch! These are the memories of some of the many worlds I have had the pleasure of experiencing in the past. It was fun to share some of the worlds around us now with a dear friend from the old neighborhood and to once again sit among the smell of flowers though they be of a differet world and share our stories and yes our memories of the past! May we each venture out our front door for yet another new adventure in the many worlds surrounding ours!