Traveling without the ones I love

I have blogged before about this strange sense of place that I have. I love to see places and to know that, for example, I have driven a car on the 101 or seen the Hudson River. It gives me an indescribable feeling to have gone to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee or to have seen the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. I am here in the Palmetto State (South Carolina) and can put another notch in my belt so to speak of places that I have been. We have had great weather down here and it has been a largely satisfying experience save the fact that I am here on business. And, also (and so much more so) that my family is not here with me. They magnify the pleasure of my travel and solidify the feelings I have as I experience a place. They are so dear to me and as I am walking through an airport and see a family with young children (young boys especially) I get a sense of loneliness in my heart. Sometimes it quite literally takes my breath away, albeit for a short second or two. I can't ruminate on it long because it would quickly overwhelm me. The ones I love are a part of my life that is irreplaceable. No amount of work, fun, friends, or drugs could take their place.

And then I wonder if this is how my Father feels about me. Knowing the way He pursued me I have to think that He loves me a great deal. And then I wonder why He does. And then I thank Him that He does and leave the scrutiny of both His method and motives to Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more