Rides!

I have been thinking, what is it that makes my life so full. I wake up in the morning and thank the BIG GUY for how it is now, peaceful, happy and full of my kids. I'm grateful for health and my job, you know, all the usual. I am even grateful for some unusual stuff, like the Lord kind of always knowing what it is that I need to do and giving me a break by making it pretty easy to know what that is.

What I hate though, is the drama of my life and I have been trying to figure out how to purge that.

Any ideas?

I thought of banning any conversation about any of the dramatic parts of my life. I am working on that. How about keeping my distance from stress and heartache by concentrating on service and giving. I have the plans of a mission. I just don't know how to change what is so familiar in my life so that it can be different.

As I was meditating about this, I remembered seeing a movie when my kids were still little. It was a hectic and busy life back then and I felt so overwhelmed most of the time. When I think about it now, it seems so insignificant but back then that stuff was real and hard.

It was called "Parenthood" and it was a satire on modern urban life and I think the message was pretty clear. "Take a breather". Just stop and breath and feel living.

At one point in the movie, Gil, the father, is in the dining room with his grandmother at thanksgiving time. Chaos was all around and you could see that he was at the end of his emotional rope.

The following words are exchanged;

Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.

Gil: Oh?

Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!

Gil: What a great story.

Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it.

I started to cry right there in the movie when I heard this. It was a moment when I knew I was supposed to hear exactly that.

To say my life has been a roller coaster ride would be an understatement. But I have never and I mean never felt that it hasn't all been worth it. All the good and the bad and the ugly.

It's continues to be a thrill.