Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Monday And The Remarkable Car Hours

“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
 
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So yesterday Tom got off work early, came and picked me up, then we drove over the (scary) New York thruway to that dark, though-many-windowed doctor building so he could have another of his back injections. Remember when I forgot my reading glasses last time? Well, I certainly triple-checked this time that I had them.

But yesterday! No snow anywhere, just gleaming sunlight, though we had 58 degrees and a crisp breeze, so I sat out in the bright car, reading, the entire 3 1/2 hours.

It felt like a day at the beach.


I'd brought my stuffed book bag and a thermos of hot chocolate and at one point I did venture inside that Bat-Cave-like building for a tiny bag of cheesey Ruffles from the machine, but hurried back outside to The Exiles at Home, a book I'd bought months ago, yet hadn't read. I finished it and oh! Another delightful, unique read like its prequel, The Exiles.

I'd actually anticipated these car hours. Why? There's just something about sitting inside a sunny car on a Monday afternoon in September, gazing around at acres of trees beginning to switch colors. There's something about becoming too warm inside a car yet simultaneously feeling a crisp, cool breeze through opened windows upon your arms and watching people walk past your windshield, many hobbling with canes. And feeling invisible, yet praying for them.

And really? There's just something about deciding to feel happy during a nearly 4-hour-wait away from technology and noise, spending that time sitting beside God in the driver's seat, which He is, you know, when we rise out of it, ourselves, and give Him that place.

Any day, even a Monday, becomes a memorable experience simply by searching for wonder until we find it, until we find Him. Then appreciating that we're still alive in this color-infused, autumnal world which God created for His kids so very long ago, a world where He meant for us to dwell in love, not hate, to forgive, not to hold grudges, to take responsibility for our worried thoughts, rather than blame others for them.

A certain daily, unshakeable type of happiness comes that way, at least, I've found that to be so.





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"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him."   ... Psalm 34:8


“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.”
Albert Einstein



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Tom and I arrived home and watched another couple Netflixed episodes of Person of Interest, Season 2. Anyone else enjoy this show as much as we do?

2 comments:

Thickethouse.wordpress said...

A very good day! And I see that amazon also has The Exiles in Love.

Elizabeth said...

sounds very relaxing!