I've BEEN There!

A thrilling thing started the other day. Even though we aren't even back home, yet...we have begun the look back. As difficult as most of this trip was, as unprepared as we were, and as few of our goals were actually met...this trip was a huge blessing.

It began on Sunday, watching Forrest Gump on TBS. We love that movie, and it had been YEARS since either of us had seen it. So we were watching with an awesome dose of nostalgia...me remembering that my butt was so numb after watching that movie in the theater in my sophomore year of high school. (incidentally, I remember sitting right next to my dearest sister-friend, Heather...nearly 20 years ago...I love that my life includes friends from that far back!) Anyway - the part where Forrest takes off running across the U.S. for 3 years was on. We watched and giggled...and then he stopped. My breath caught as he turned around and declared that he was tired and wanted to go home, now...I was ON THAT ROAD LAST TUESDAY!!! I couldn't believe it. (I googled it, just to make sure.) When we were driving from Colorado, here to Phoenix, we had to cross through Utah. I was looking out the window toward Monument Valley, on Hwy. 163. This road is so long and so straight that the cars ahead look like specks...and was thinking how rare it is that one gets to see that far ahead. I knew exactly what I was thinking at the precise spot that Forrest stopped running...I've BEEN THERE!

{unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the camera out before we were almost all the way down the road.}

Then this morning, I was checking email, and saw that my Google homepage had a link where you could change the background picture. I was looking through them, and there was a black and white panoramic of Yosemite Valley, by a professional photog. Well...BOOYAH!...I have the exact same picture in my photo files! I stood exactly where he stood, and took the same picture...I wonder if there were tears streaming down his face, too? I wonder if his breath left him when he came out of that tunnel, and if he shamelessly thanked God for the experience, in front of hundreds of people? I wonder if he felt like he could have stood there forever, without leaving? I wonder if it gives him the chills to say...I've BEEN THERE!


It may seem trivial to some that I know from personal experience, that I-40 truly did rob this nation of the Route 66 charm, or that Death Valley couldn't be more appropriately named; that the Giant Forest at Sequoia National Park is utterly terrifying to get to...but, so worth it when you do; or, that the Grand Canyon still looks like a painting, even when you're standing at the edge, or that San Francisco is equal parts beautiful and frustrating; that if I had to take a ferry boat every time I needed to go somewhere, that I would be totally content...as long as my son wasn't with me; that style is truly concentrated in & around cities; that you're not likely to hear a cuss word in Salt Lake City, or that people in Portland get excited when it thunders in a rainstorm; what it feels like to pray alone on a huge beach...but, I don't care.

There's a recurring theme of thinking and not doing in my life...but, THIS TIME...I did things. In the moment, most of it sucked...but, I did it...and I have experiences that I didn't have before. That makes it worth it.

I'm going to go find a home, and I'm going to get a routine back...but, I will do everything in my power to make sure that I don't go another 7 years without DOING again. I'm going to DO. I'm going to LIVE...as an ACTION.

What about you?