Do you ever read something and it just resonates with you. Such has been my life recently. Here are 5 things that I have read that seem to sum up my life at this moment.
What would sum up your life?
Thoughts
Musical Questions
Everyone here should know that I have been on a massive purging kick. It is getting tiring but it has felt so good to go through everything and continue to pare my life down. Paperwork was one of the things that I finally worked up the courage to go through and I realized that I had so much that was pointless.
Years ago I did party planning and collected ideas for future events and that included game ideas for certain events. One of the games I came across was a musical game that I am currently playing with co-workers as a way to make it through the summer.
The game is really simple: Answer the question with a song. It did take some thought and it has been fun to hear all of the answers especially when there are generational differences.
Here are 5 questions to get you started. Play the game with me!
- Describe how you felt after your first kiss?
- What instantly reminds you of your college years? (Yes I went to school in Hawaii)
- How do you feel after work?
- What are you always thinking about?
- My life is summed up as . . .
Slow Driving
Don’t think I am weird but when it is lightly drizzling rain outside I somehow feel the need to take a slow drive somewhere. There is something about the quietness that the rain brings to me that calms me and a drive by myself gives me the opportunity to just think.
With that being said, it is also summer and I don’t know about any of you but my whole life has been filled with summer road trips. I have some great memories that come from car trips and it never involved speaking on the phone or watching a movie to pass the time. I always loved the conversations I had with the people in the car and I loved the scenery as it passed by. I would stare out the window and imagine what the lives were like of the people that I passed by.
So today, I decided to share some of my favorite drives. As I thought about this, I realized that I have WAY more than 5 to share. I am not necessarily sharing my top 5 but I am sharing the first 5 that came to mind.
What is your favorite drive? Please share with everyone! Who knows, we might all end up on it some day. 🙂
1.This first drive is between my current house and Portland, OR. I love this drive for two reasons: first, it reminds me of serving a mission for my church. This was the area tha t served in and as I drive through it, I think about all of the people that I met. I think about the lives I was able to help change and I think about my own changed life. The second reason is watching the changing landscape. I love the desert and grew up in it. It can be so beautiful watching the dusty landscape share some flowers every now and then. I love watching that change as I get closer to the coast and see water renew the ground and bring a different kind of life to it with the ferns and evergreens that dot the landscape. I sit and wonder about how beautiful our earth is and what a blessing it is to share in it.
2. I spent my formative years always near a portion of this drive and many times we found ourselves vacationing along it as well. I love PCH or for those of you who don’t know, Pacific Coast Highway. This drive is where I really developed my love of being close to the ocean.
3. I spent my whole life making this drive two different ways then was shown a new one once my brother and sister-in-law were married and it now ranks high on my list. I love the drive from Idaho Falls, ID to Jackson Hole, WY via Victor, ID. I get the opportunity to pass through a couple of valleys, up and down a couple of mountains and follow the Snake River for a time. It is beautiful and full of wildlife. Just be very careful not to hit a moose when travelling around 10pm on Christmas Eve. 🙂
4. This drive was more of a meandering through upstate New York and it was well worth the meander. I highly suggest that everyone spend time in upstate NY.
5. My last drive is through the backside of highway 5 in Oregon through the Willamette Valley. It goes through a lot of vineyards but mostly, it is just quiet and it feels slightly off the grid.
When You Need a Good Walk
This has been the longest week of my life.
Seriously.
I have felt like this whole week has either been a string of never-ending Saturdays or the worst possible way of saying that I was too sick to go into the office. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around not working. I know that I made the choice to stop working but it also feels like someone pulled the rug out from under me. I have made a point of getting up and getting dressed (although I have only worn makeup once this week) and I have been busy doing things all week but the daily drive of my life over the last ten years is no longer there. It is as if I forgot how to drive stick and I can’t seem to figure out how to shift out of second gear.
Don’t get me wrong; It has been great as well. I have enjoyed a home cooked and eaten at the table breakfast. I love that I have the dog around me all day. I love waking up naturally after 8 hours of sleep to the daylight.I love being able to take care of my errands during daylight hours and not having to race around getting everything done after I finished work and before the places closed. (Thank heavens that Wal-Mart has been open 24 hours all of these years.)
But it is actually all of this that has led me to my weekly five.I know; you are thinking what could it possibly be since it seems as if she is struggling. I will tell you what happened to me on Tuesday this week. I woke up at 7am and was actually refreshed. I was ready to do something and so I decided to go on a walk with the dog. It was a great morning to walk albeit a little cold. I bundled up and we were gone for an hour. We walked through neighborhoods and then followed the road back to the house. All the while there were snow flurries. It was a great walk and it felt good to breath fresh air. (Needless to say, about 15 minutes after I walked into the house a blizzard started up and even forced the snow plow to take a swipe through the neighborhood).
I really love to walk. It gives me time outside. It usually forces a great conversation if you are walking with someone and more often than not, it is the best possible way for me to think. I think and think and think and usually find myself having walked a little too far away from the house that the walk back is somewhere between, “seriously?” or “when is it ever going to end?”. I did a lot of thinking on this particular walk and while I don’t have all of life figured out, I felt more hopeful about where things are headed.
So my Friday five is my most favorite places to take a walk.
1. I really love the trail right outside of my current neighborhood. It is the Hobble Creek Canyon Trail and not only is it a great place to walk but it is great to run, bike, skateboard or look at nature with the kids.
2. I have always LOVED this second place and would go back to Kansas City just to be near it again. It is actually where I learned that I loved to run because for once it wasn’t on a track or in the street. It is the City of Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
3. This was a great place to walk and and even better place to people watch. I grew up as a kid spending a lot of time wondering the beach, pier and neighborhoods. It is Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California.
4. I really love walking through the city and not feeling like you are in the city. But this place captured my heart the first time I saw it and has been a place that I go back to every time I am in Portland, Oregon. It is Washington Park.
5. This walk is one that I remember ever since being a very little girl. I can’t tell you about how important my conversations used to feel with my grandmother as we walked. To this day, when I need advice, I mentally think about what my grandmother would tell me and I always picture her walking with me through these woods. It is Muir Woods National Monument in Northern California.
Jenn is Playing Favorites 