Usually, the few times we visit our old town together, Tom drives us. Well, today I drove Lennon back there alone for his yearly check-up. Gee, does he ever hate that place--in fact, so do I.

Oh my. All grace is off of me to live in that crowded, fast-paced community. And I once adored it! But clearly, my heart moved out to the countryside and now I can barely stand to return to the town I called mine for nearly 15 years. All the cars and houses squeezed together and traffic lights and noise and -- Well, stop me while you still can.

I even detoured and rode past our old house and was happy to see that the owner had made some nice improvements and planted a multi-colored flower garden in front of the sun room. But alas, when I turned onto our old street I practically began hyperventilating. I had to carefully squeeze the car in between parked cars and good gracious, each house seemed to be sitting on the neighboring one's lap.

I am so not pining for my old life.

Really, Grace is amazing. She kept us happy and contented while we lived in that cramped/crowded/smoggy community, but when the time came to leave, she let us know that, too. Clearly. She withdrew her magic and we began to feel like sad, caged animals. Our neighborhood felt like a can of sardines, with Tom and I being the middle sardines.

Of course, we could have lagged behind Grace, and simply stayed, moaning and complaining for years about how everything had changed for the worse. People let fear of change and the unknown talk them out of what God wants for them all the time. But instead, we responded by moving away, even though it was a scarey, huge step for us both--but it scares me more to 'miss God' and lag behind. And I'm grateful beyond words that we let go--each trip back there reminds me.

And how marvelous that God and Grace led us to such a pretty, quiet place.


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So is anyone else disappointed in the direction which NCIS has taken? Sheesh. Suddenly they tossed away the humorous banter we all loved and replaced it with been-there-done-that-bought-the-dvd's violent drama. Et tu, NCIS?