ROAD TRIP (conference, pt 1)

Tune your mental soundtrack to the following:

Carry On Wayward Son- Kansas (must listen to Kansas when driving through it)

How Bizarre- OMC (Because... is there really an acceptable reason?)

Time On Your Side- Emily Jane White (Because it talks about truckers and wasted lives and frank sinatra, and because it's beautiful and one of my characters heard it on the radio the other day and it made her feel lonely)

Selected Waterdeep (like "Everybody's Guilty", the one Lori sings instead of Don on the live cd.)

Get your snacks:

Side Note: I adore the Flint Hills of Kansas. At first all you see is a rolling blue-green horizon. Look closer. The prairie grasses are purple and golden and green and orange and... you get the idea. Hopefully, knowing my love for Kansas will offset the impact of the disparaging remarks I am about to make about Western Kansas.

It is flat. I took no pictures. I didn't need to.

(Although I should have captured the signs advertising the giant 8,000 pound prairie dog and the "live" 5-legged steer. I missed the boat on that one.)

We were so exhausted from having nothing to look at (and, I'll admit, from singing really loudly to Wayward Son) that we had to detour in Hays, KS to find a restaurant we'd read about in a magazine. I had some kind of green bean dumpling soup that I would highly recommend, should you ever find yourself detouring in Hays, KS.

And, can I just ask, what is the deal with Limon, Colorado? We started seeing signs for it over 200 miles out, and we'd drive and drive and take stupid pictures of our snack food and the signs would tell us we'd only gotten like 20 miles closer to it. 

We arrived in Denver after 11 grueling hours (okay, so we did stop in Goodland--accidentally--to see the Giant VanGogh. I must say, I was a bit disappointed. If it were a Giant VanGogh painted by blind chimpanzees, now we're talking.)

So, Annie and Pete met us halfway up a mountain and drove us to Zoka's, a hidden gem with food so good I didn't even think to take a picture. Duck with berry reduction, venison tenderloin with a maple glaze, Wild game grilled sausage. And, yes, that was all for me.

Pete and Annie's front porch is THE place to be first thing in the morning. Make sure you have a cup of coffee steaming into your face when you sit on their pine porch swing under your blanket in the chill mountain air.  You'll watch the colors heat the morning, and you might have a moment. You know what I'm talking about.

Thank you, Pete and Annie, for making me jealous.

And for making me think about how big God is. About how he made all this, and yet he set his affection on me.

My verse for the conference--the one I read and couldn't stop thinking about-- was from Psalm 17. The chapter talks about evil men, about begging God for deliverance. I was trying to figure out how this would apply to my life, since I am not currently being chased by evil men, when I caught David's description of the wicked: "...men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill their womb with treasure, they are satisfied with children." (v.14) 

It's easy to go to a writing conference with "this life" solidly in view. But is that all that I have in view? Am I content to be satisfied with my children-- my books, my temporary future? I notice that God is the one giving the treasure, giving the children, and he doesn't give evil gifts. So the pitfall isn't with what I have, it's with what I want.

"As for me I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness." (v.15)

And when I wake up in the morning to this kind of glory, and I know that it is only a shadow, a dim reflection of the beauty of its Creator, my heart trembles. I was made to experience that kind of beauty? To wake up with that likeness someday? 

TO BE CONTINUED...

CUPCAKES and ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCES (conference, pt 2)