~Two Way Street~

I find it amazing how different perceptions change your out look on life. Every morning I take a quick walk down the driveway. It's short, our driveway, but big things have been coming to me on these short walks. On the way down the driveway I can hear the road traffic, horns are often heard, but mostly it's just the rumble of trucks and the whine of car engines or the sound of some truckers jake brake. I can see the mountain and when I reach the end of our driveway and step on to the road we live on, a quiet country road that parallels the highway, the wind hits me on the face and brings with it the smell of ADVENTURE! I'm not sure which part of the walk out appeals to my adventurous self or if it's the whole of it but it does. On the way out my driveway I feel like I could just keep walking and find the adventure that is waiting, and start to live that adventure. I have no idea what that adventure might be. Good, bad, just different? I suspect it's not a God driven wish for a new adventure, but man or self driven wish for adventure. I stand in the road and look one way and then the other. I smell the wind and it flows my hair over my face. There is always wind on this road and some how it smells like a new adventure that calls to me. A fresh adventure. An unknown adventure. A new and wonderful or new and terrifying adventure. A happy or sad adventure. A long or short adventure. 

I smile and I turn back down my driveway and look at our house and home, farm and yard, family and love and I keep walking. Down the driveway towards my adventure. I stop to check the puddles for run off and the earth for the tiny bits of green that will mean flowers or plants later on. Flowers and plants that I planted in this soil. Soil I dug and prepared. The soil of my home. I see green grass, the first small shoots standing impossibly green beside a stump, in an area we prepared for grass, by clearing, burning, picking up sticks and planting. An area that a few short years ago was useless bush, now thrives with grass and health. I see Chip. Waiting half way down the driveway. Eager to see me though I've been gone only minutes. He seems to sense my feelings and is happy that I turned back his way. I feel the lack of wind and hear the calf Star bawl for her morning milk. I can still hear the highway but it's no longer calling me. Midnight the little cat is sitting watching. I reach the raised beds, which Papa and I built and filled, seeded and harvested, protected and dreamed about. Chip lunges, eager that I've reach the allowed spot and runs to greet me. I remind him of his manners and he sits so I can pet his head.

There are memories all around me. Every piece of the land I can see I've stepped on, worked on, battled with, watched my children play on, enjoyed and mulled over.  I hear the rhythmic thump thump of the milking machine as it pulls milk from Isabels udder while I walk. Chores go on without me. I see the house, that on going project, and I picture in my head what it might look like... it's always different and that is part of the adventure. I see the trailer and I think of my children. Sleeping inside. I am swarmed with memories.. My biggest adventure!!  Soundly asleep in their beds, giggling madly in their beds, running across the house to 'see if they can get up yet'. Every day is a grand adventure. I see my adventure, and their adventure, in their eyes every morning, and I hope they can see the adventure in mine. The highway noise is fading, almost gone, the wind is gone, the house calls to me, the cow in her stanchion, the children in their beds, the empty spot where the car sits when Papa is home from work. 

 I smile that secret smile as I walk by the empty spot where Papa parks his car. He is not my adventure. He and I are. He and I are one! Are not separable. We are in this adventure together. There is no adventure without him. He is me and I am him. I remember the kiss, the one he gives me before he leaves for work. On the forehead in bed as I sleep, on the mouth at the door. The smile. You know the one. The one that says I am yours and you are mine and I love you. The knowing look he gave me as he left for his side of our adventure, while I stay home with my side of our adventure. Sometimes we wish we could switch. Share a bit more of the others adventure. We cherish the part of the adventure that we get to share together. Everyday is an adventure. 

My adventure is calling me. The calf bawling for her milk, the pigs grunting good morning, the thump thump of the milking machine marking off the time until chores are done, the chickens clucking in their pen as they walk the fence line in hopes of a bucket of food, the excited whimper of Chip as he tries to convince me to throw his stick, the mew of the cats as they beg for milk, the sound of the birds in the trees, the children waiting asleep inside, and the thought that a new day has started. A brand new day. 

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22 & 23. 

Today is a brand new day with no mistakes in it. *

I know inside there are chores to be finished, coffee to drink, breakfast to make, kids to wake and kiss, smiles to exchange, dreams to hear, life to live, diapers to change, babies to snuggle, fun to be had, training to do, schooling, dishes, laundry, WORK to be done. Just like I know outside there are sticks to pick up, grass to seed, house to build, animals to care for, land to clear, firewood to haul, races to be had, toys to enjoy, challenges to face and all of this are ADVENTURES TO BE ENJOYED!!! 

Go out and make the most of YOUR adventure!! 

*Anne of Green Gables.. actually the quote is 'Tomorrow is a brand new day with no mistakes in it.'