Gaining Ground

Maybe this has been building for some time, like a kid building a hill in a dry sand box.  Small shovel after shovel of sand moving from one side to the next, not really doing much as we all know what happens with dry sand.

But then you hit the moist sand below and now we’re getting somewhere.

That must have happened sometime in the last month because I’ve found it a bit harder and harder to breath with each passing day.

I must have sensed that sand box was gaining on me last week as I sighed heavily one morning and followed up to my husband that I just needed a vacation.  A week from work.  A week from obligations.  A week to recharge.  He agreed.

However, we don’t have a week.

We do, however, have moments to take a break… to breathe… to seek out beauty and soak it in.  In a battle of texts yesterday, my siblings all sent pictures and written scenes back and forth about where their “church” was for Easter morning.  For one brother, it was mountain biking, the other was enjoying a beautiful day working out in his yard, my sister was hiking some land that had long been in our family until the greed of inheritance caused it to leave the family when my mom passed away (and by greed I am in no way referencing my siblings – we all lost much of our inheritance trying to keep it in the family – if an aunt or uncle reads this then you know who you are), my contribution to the string of texts was something like “we made bacon”.  Meant to be tongue in cheek and perhaps a bit humorous considering what everyone else was doing, it might have been lost considering the audience was outdoors, burning calories, not consuming them.

A remedy was required.  Not by my siblings, but by me.  Ever the perfectionist, I couldn’t let this end with the fact that Rocky and I fried up bacon for breakfast and that was our grand Easter “thing”.  2 years ago we drug a friend up Multnomah Falls for a picnic on what felt like the top of the world.  Last year we were doing yard work I’m fairly certain, and this year we were eating breakfast meat.  That just wouldn’t do.  We’re surrounded by so much beauty just a short drive away, so off we went, in search of serenity, in search of life, in search of a break away.

This came in the form of a river bank, an old bridge and the gateway to the Columbia River Gorge.  Oh, and a stop for a less than serious selfie because we’ve forgotten how to do them any other way.

A longer break will have to wait, for now, I’ll find refreshment in the form of small stops along this long road trip.  I didn’t used to.  I’m wiser now.