Friday, April 15, 2011

My World…Road Trippin’ Part 2

As I mentioned on Monday, we are back from a road trip, the destination of which was Arizona and the goal of which was to see the abundant, and awe inspiring, Indian Ruins in that beautiful state.

We were in Canyon De Chelly and we were hiking along a trail that allowed us a spectacular view of Spider Rock.  It was a very easy walk (my favorite kind) and I must confess to feeling a wee bit guilty about enjoying all that view for so very little effort.  Typically, we have to hike uphill for miles and miles (in the snow…while carrying our brothers and sisters on our backs) for a view of that caliber!

I quickly made peace with this guilt knowing that I had “done my time” on countless other hikes, and as I looked out at the majesty that surrounded me, the term “small world” instantly came to mind.  At that moment, however, what I was feeling was that the world was anything but small.  In fact, what I felt more than anything was just how overwhelmingly big the world really is.  Words like expansive and vast came to mind…but most certainly not a word like small.     

As I was contemplating the vastness of it all, a moment of sadness overtook me as I came to the realization that no matter how long I lived it would not be long enough to see it all.  The world is simply too big, and even if time and money were in endless supply, which they are not, but even if they were, I would never experience all the beauty in this world.  (I’m not trying to be all “woe is me” here, but it’s a simple fact that there are many, many, many parts of this beautiful world that I will never see.)

At the exact moment that this realization cemented itself into my brain, and at the exact moment that I accepted this as fact (and, indeed, as my destiny), my family came into my view.  On the path before me walked my husband, my son, and my daughter, side by side, taking up the narrow path. 

Peace washed over me…for right there, right before me, was my world.  There is beauty in those three people…beauty in the past that we have shared together, beauty in that very moment that we were sharing, and beauty in the wondering of what the future might hold for each of us...and that is all I need; indeed, it is all I will ever need.

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