This guy.
I have a dream.
I have a dream that some day, before it’s too late, he’ll be bit too. Bit by that stubborn li’l wanderlust bug that bit me as a young woman. And never let go.
That some day we’ll have the time and means and freedom to travel the world.
To see and set foot on as much of Creation as we can before leaving this earth.
Some day.
Before the wrinkles already forming around our eyes and on our foreheads grow too numerous to count.
Before we’re too old and feeble to enjoy it with gusto and a spirit of unstoppable adventure.
Before God calls us Home.
Even knowing that Home will be far more glorious and awesome than the wonders of Creation sprinkled across the expanse of His beloved earth.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.”
(Psalm 24: 1-2)
But then.
I think about the reality that most of us don’t and won’t get to travel the world. It’s a luxury, a gift reserved for few, for sure.
Most often, when we have the youth and energy to travel, we don’t have the money or the time to “do it right.”
After all, we have jobs to work, kids to raise, responsibilities to juggle, priorities to keep.
And ironically, when – or if rather – we finally have the money and time, we’re likely too old to “see the world” as energetically, adventurously and painlessly as we would’ve in our younger years.
“Ay, there’s the rub.”
Ah well.
My dream is a selfish one anyway. Offering nothing for anyone other than me, the lusty traveler.
But I am reminded.
The beauty and majesty of His Creation, which includes all of us His children, all the land, water and air around us, and everything therein.
They are already before me and around me.
In still, small ways.
And they exist to glorify God and God alone.
Open your eyes. Open your ears. Open your heart, Anita. And be satisfied.
Esther W says
Wow. I feel as if I just had a serious kick in the pants. Here I am, being envious of a girlfriend who just went out on a date with her hubs to the ball park (while her baby girl is being babysat by her mil at home), and this is while my own loving and hardworking husband is resting (so he can work the next day to provide for our family) and my sweet and mild mannered baby boy is sleeping peacefully in the next room. While I might not have the same wanderlust cravings as you, I, too, crave because I forget how good, rich, and adventurous things are. But, I’ve been reminded, thanks to your rich, poetic insight, to open my eyes and see creation as I know it today. Thanks for sharing. I thank our God for your exhibition of boldness and courage. Blessings~
Edit- have cravings, forgetting how good…
Thought it was worth editing. ^^;
Thanks, Esther. I think we’ve hit the very thing that confronts us with our human-ness – how easy it is to lose sight of how fortunate and blessed we already are. Especially when we start looking around at others. It’s the thing that seems to be tripping me up, a lot, lately. Spiritual growing pains, I think. For I’d always, perhaps mistakenly, thought of myself as a grateful person. But when I experience the kinds of feelings and convictions that inspire me to write posts like this one, and the one before it (“Back to School 101: Them Crazy School Moms”), and even the one before that one (“House Hunting and Keeping Up With Them Joneses”), I see that no, I’ve still got a ways to go. My eyes must stay focused on God and not the world around me. Thankfully, me and my flesh – we’re not left struggling on our own. Neither are you. His Spirit dwells within us, thank God, literally. Blessings to you too, Esther!