We had agreed that this past 4th of July we needed to force ourselves to take some time, shut down the operations and just rest.  Isn’t it crazy that we have to force ourselves to rest?  So, we packed a cooler and an overnight bag and joined some friends at a local, but off the beaten path, park. Our good friends had hooked up their fifth wheel trailer and parked it smack dab in the middle of Stress Free Campground, named accordingly. It was quiet, secluded and downright chill.  It had all the earmarks of time gone by.  An old chicken coop, weathered wooden benches, a tiny park with one of those spin it yourself merry go rounds and a concrete swimming pool complete with flaking paint and a weeks worth of leaves.  The ambience was reminiscent of small town USA, a bit forgotten. Not the Taj Mahal, but it provided a much needed escape from the chaos of our business life.  We turned off the cellphones, grabbed the lawn chairs and headed to the pool.  Not surprisingly, it was empty.  All to ourselves.   As we opened the crooked gate, it growned in defiance.   A perfect setting for our goal.  We wanted to, for a short period, just forget time.

My husband and friend dared the water, conversation and laughter ensued and we began to fall into that comfortable place of quiet and sun and relaxation. As always, I can’t rest long.  My mind starts to move and before I know it, I”m up and about, looking for something to do.  I grabbed my camera and began searching the view finder for something unique.  A bug caught my attention and I spent a couple of minutes following his trail.  Someone jumped in the pool and I changed direction. Snapping away, I followed the little waves through my viewfinder.  It always amazes me how different the world looks when it is directed on the still shot.  Nothing else in the view, but the straight ahead. I sat down and started clicking through some of the photos that I had taken.  I’m a connoisseur of the closeup and was taking a quick look to enjoy what I had captured.   As I began to zoom in on one of the water photos, something started to form before my very eyes.  The foam and the movement of the water had taken on the shape of the number 3.  This number is one that has been vital in my life…starting with my faith and trust in the trinity of God, my three daughters and so much more.  *bunny trail – Something that many people don’t know, I have 3 kidneys! (One is a double embryo, they say – Overachiever here!)  What a cool reminder to me that God sends us little notes all through His creation.

I began to think how many times we miss things in our daily life because we don’t make the time to ‘zoom in’.  We have become surface viewers.  We just can’t help ourselves. We don’t stop long enough to smell the roses.  As a matter of fact, we tend to skim over the visual of the roses and we don’t even see them growing in front of us.  We live in an era of visual chaos.  It consumes us. We just can’t seem to find the time to zoom in, to take that extra moment and discover what is beneath.  I haven’t been able to shake this thought today.  What am I missing, Lord?  What have I missed?  What will I miss if I don’t change the way I view things?  That antsy feeling started rising up in me once again.  This time, it had some direction.  I’m finding myself wanting to stop, drop and zoom in on the things around me.  Taking time to be quiet, then to sit in the quiet and take a closer look.

Creatively His, Sue;)