Good Thoughts

While driving to Barnes & Noble today, I started thinking of all my favorite "moments." You see, throughout my life I have moments that have just burned themselves into my brain and every so often I'll just find myself going back to them. And the thoughts I am talking about are the best ones. The thoughts that bring me back to the happiest moments, even if most of those moments were only an hour or so here and there. So, for your reading enjoyment, here is an unordered list of my favorite thoughts..

1.) Star-Gazing
Laying up on the hill on a clear August night watching for shooting stars. The cool damp grass, a comfy blanket and just all those stars. You forget how clear they are when you live in an urban area. It's just so peaceful and relaxing. You look up at all those stars and the fireflies and the smell of lingering bonfire or cookout. You appreciate everything you have. In that moment, that specific point in time, no matter how shitty things are, everything is perfect. You have your health, your family, the grass and the stars. I miss that.

2.) Crisp Late-October Hiking
My neighbors back home own hundreds of acres of forests and fields. My favorite time to look back on is being up on the trails, the dirt paths between fields. Usually a deer or two lingering in the field, all twitchy knowing that hunting season is on its heels. The air is cold and crisp. A nice 40-some degree day. Cold enough for a sweater, jeans, boots and maybe a scarf. No need for a jacket. Nose and cheeks red from the cold. Acorns or a hawk feather in my pocket. The smell of dying leaves and earth and the bright reds and oranges on the trees. *sigh*

3.) Top of Chimney Tops
This one is one specific moment. Hiking with Jenna up to Chimney Tops in the Smokies. We hiked 2 miles up the mountain in snow and ice. The temperature dropped about 20 degrees by the top. After making it to the very very top, with miles upon miles of mountains on all sides.. just looking out over all of God's creation. And my muscles were sore and tired but wonderful. Jenna shared her cheese bread (which at the end of a hike is a delicacy finer than any fare at a fancy establishment). It was a fantastic day. The last day of 2005 spent with one of my best friends at the top of a mountain with plenty of great conversation when our breath was caught up enough to allow it.

4.) Early Dismissal/Snow Days
I'm not sure if this one is a particular day or combined days from my childhood. Either way I think of it and it makes me all nostalgic and happy. An early dismissal from school with snow falling, a foot or more of impending blizzard-type goodness. We get home and my mom has a pot of homemade chicken soup on the stove with homemade bread still warm from the oven and homemade sugar cookies either already baked or in the making. With enough snow on the ground Morgan and I gear up (which means wearing at least 5 pairs of pants simultaneously) grabbing the sleds and going out to sled down the hill. And Shevis (my old dog) would chase us all the way down. And we'd trudge back up the hill to the very top (when my mom wasn't looking) and sled down as fast as possible, slamming into the fireplace, deck or house only to go back up and do it again. And then, once we're frozen with snow in our hair and cheeks and nose red and stinging we go inside, tracking snow everywhere and enjoy cookies and hot chocolate. If I ever have children, I'll HAVE to move back to an area with snow. That's not even a question.

5.) Old Orchard Beach, ME
Every summer my family goes up to Old Orchard Beach in Maine for some family vay-cay. I'd always find myself something good to read. I would love just laying on the beach, engrossed in a good book. The hot sand and the sun. The smell of the pages. And once I became too hot, into the frigid Atlantic I'd go and swim until my skin was a bluish tint and feeling started to fade (I like my water cold). Once I was good and frozen I'd take all my stuff back up to the pool and warm up in the pool water only to find myself a beach chair and read some more until I was dry. Then later in the evening I'd play Rummy with my grandmother, my hair and skin caked with a nice layer of chlorine and salt water and just feeling good from being in the sun (despite my inevitible sunburns).

6.) Africa
I went on a missionary trip to Africa when I was 15. I was on a team of teenagers that helped build an orphanage for AIDS orphans. ANYWAY I always remember one day in particular, I was walking back from the worksite (I forget why, but I was by myself). It was just so beautiful. You could see HUGE mountains along the horizon, bigger than any mountains I've seen over in the states. They were all faded purple along the blue sky background.. not a cloud to be found. The sun was a deep red, you could look right at it due to all the dust in the air, it was Malawi's dry season. And all around the path were charred fields. Not an ounce of green. Just huge Baobob trees and dry fields with the smell of smoke in the air. (The locals burn the fields every year and collect the mice that run out and sell them cooked on a stick). That walk though, was just breathtaking and humbling. The smell of the smoke and the warm dry air. I had my boots on and my hair hadn't been washed in at least a month and my skirt was dirty from working with dust dried to the sweat on my skin, in my nose, my hair. It may sound gross, but that was one of the happiest moments of my life. That very point was the closest I've ever been with God and the strongest I had ever been spiritually. I just bring back the memory of that walk and I am so happy and thankful.

So kids, there are lots more little memories (morgan camping out in my room and us staying up all night talking, building forts in the woods, some memories more on a personal note, etc.) but the ones listed above are my favorites. If you read them all, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do!