Dear Reader:

While I was babysitting the grandchildren this past weekend….I actually had time to think about setting some new goals in my life…nothing outlandish…just more of an extension of what is already in place.

Right now these dreams haven’t been “officially” re-categorized into reality projects…so I will hold off sharing them (at this moment) but certainly down the road as my thoughts start to take shape and transform into a life of their own.

Kate Wolfe-Jenson, one of my favorite bloggers, shared a metaphorical story from her youth that brought back memories of my own childhood.

She remembered how she loved to canoe around a lake her family lived near for part of each year. She soon learned to look for the geographic signs that would show her the way home while out on the lake. In her own words:

When I was young, my parents owned a cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin. I loved to take the canoe out on the lake at dawn, paddling through mirrored waters as lifting tendrils of mist left damp kisses on my cheek. I’d often pass a heron standing on one leg peering intently into the shallows. I might be lucky enough to move alongside a beaver working on its lodge. (Get too close and slap! Splash! It would smack its tail on the water and submerge.)

Sometimes, after I was out on the lake, the winds would rise and the water would get choppy with white caps. I would head back toward shore. It wasn’t as simple as paddling straight home. Near our cabin was a point of land on which stood three tall pines. I would point the bow of the canoe toward those pines and paddle, pulling as strongly as I could against the resistance of the wind and water.

By the time I had brought the paddle around for my next stroke, the waves would have moved the canoe off course. Alone in a canoe, you provide both power to move the boat forward and rudder to steer. Put the paddle in the water and move it, using muscles in your arms and shoulder and legs to pull against opposing forces. Then stop, with the paddle deep in the water, to point the canoe toward home.

She soon realized that no matter what happened, never take your eyes off the signs leading you home…in this case three tall pine trees standing alone.

Jenson went on to ask her readers if they could name the three tall pines in their lives who have kept them on-course and headed home in the right direction.

I thought: (1) GOD (2) Our Inner Voice (3) Family/friends

The older I get the more I turn to God to help me with decisions and directions in my life. At the age I am, I humbly admit these days that, not only do I not know it all, the more I know, the more I know how little I know.

God is working through my inner voice…it is up to me to recognize it and then react to it.

In many cases family and friends are used as messengers to help direct me by being people I trust.

But in all three “tall pines” nothing happens without GOD first.

At one of the camps I attended, as a preadolescent, canoeing was a required activity…we were “partner-ed off, thank goodness, but I soon discovered that paddling was a lot harder than it first appeared. I was okay if we were both paddling on the same side together…but when we switched sides paddling from left to right and vice-versus…I was terribly clumsy and it seemed to take forever to get my paddle switched and placed correctly.

But the hardest thing for me was to keep my paddle in the water (deep and still) to allow us to slow down and then  turn in a different  direction….My paddle kept floating to the top as my strength waned. We had several docking decks at camp and I still remember my partner and mine’s had a yellow flag flying off of it.

I knew if we could just make the turn on this lake and get back into the dock with the yellow flag we would pass the canoeing requirements. The day my partner and I had our “canoe test” the waters were choppy and we both discovered to our “horror” that I would have to hold the paddle still in the deep water in order to make that important turn to success.

There were definitely three “people” in that canoe that day….(three tall pines) because for the first and only time I found the strength to “brake” and slowly help my partner turn the canoe around.

As an adult remembering this incident at camp…I understand now that I was being “tested” in more ways than just a camp requirement.

So until tomorrow…When we are still.…when we slow down our lives and listen deeply to God’s new directions for our lives…we can feel the glow of the aftermath of our reunion with our Creator and His purpose for our lives.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*I even made a change in my photos today…I decided to go with black & white….just to change it up a bit. I kept Rutledge and Lachlan for a little while Friday night and then Eva Cate and Jakie Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon.

I loved just watching the antics between the sets of siblings now that they are at different ages…there’s not as much territorial maneuvering going on as I expected. There are more truces than battles. (Of course all of this is subject to “change” without a moment’s notice!)

Tigger, who thinks he is a sibling too….the oldest…maintains his personal “space” and waits patiently by the door until everyone returns home again. He’s not happy until everyone is back together.

Happiness is….Mommy and Daddy are back and Eva Cate has them all to herself since Jakie is taking his afternoon nap! Just having the pleasure of being still with two loving parents can set the stage for a great week ahead.