Highway 1

Life has so many twists and turns, like my drive down CA Highway 1 two weeks ago. The longest part of our 2 hour drive to the beach were the last 9 miles--a curvy one-lane road with hairpin turns and sharp juts out over the ocean. The view was gorgeous, but I was the driver and had to be so concentrated on every inch of the road, that I missed some of the beautiful views of the water crashing on the rocks to the right or the towering fir trees on the left. I had all 6 of my kids with me and I was the sole person responsible for their safety, so I kept a close eye on that yellow line. I was more interested in quickly navigating the turns so we could start our afternoon at the beach!

As I navigate through life's hairpin turns, I'm often so closely watching what's in front of me that I miss the beauty and joy my life holds. Isn't it true that sometimes the trials we have are so gigantic while we are in them and that's all we can see? Did you see that curve? Forget the blessings I'm surrounded with, I need to look just right here in front of me!

Sometimes our focus is a little more on the new road we are navigating through, but even so, it doesn't mean that we can't pull over at view points and see the whole picture. What are those view points for you? My kids were frantically trying to take pictures out the window with their iPods. It really was beautiful and it had been WAY too long since we'd seen the continent's edge. Finally they yelled, "There's a turnout! Pull over so we can really see!" Breathtaking. Each curve in the road just took us to another vista of beauty.

For two years my family focus was "Find Joy in the Journey". It really helped me to find the humor in the chaos, the small tender mercies in the day to day, and the joy in the little things. Although we were going through one of the hardest trials of our life and navigating many hairpin turns, there was joy all around us in our children and all the blessings we had been given to help us along the path. No matter how narrow and difficult the road we are on, life still has so much joy around us if we just slow down enough to enjoy it.