Thanks Jerry

I got in the car and as I drove I felt a feeling I haven't felt in three years.  It was wonderful, let me tell you that.  It rested right in the pit of my stomach.  An excitement pushing on my insides.  An adventurous longing, the kind that sees a mountain and jumps up and down in jubilation, like a child, at the sheer fact that I will get the opportunity to scale the heights of the heavens.  Nothing on that mountain could tear me down from the emotional high I've already climbed.  Nothing could stop me from reaching the summit, save its own Creator.

Three years back I boarded a plane en route to England.  Said my goodbyes to the parents after waiting with them for as long as can be.  Amber was there too.  As I left she gave me her, "I'm so glad to see you" hug as if we hadn't seen each other in ages when in fact I hung out with her the day before yesterday.  Those are the best kinds of hugs to give anyone.

And I nearly cry every time I think about it.  It wasn't a sad time in my life at all.  I would be returning later that winter, only four months away. But I love my family so much.  And my friends, of course I love them too.  This admittance of love goes unsaid all too often.

My memory's not that good to tell you detail for detail every bit of that flight.

I sat next to a more elderly woman.  She was returning home after visiting family in the States. I don't think we actually spoke with one another till the flight was nearing its end.  But I remember her telling me I'll love London.  The big city lights. Bustling roads like all other cities.  Just this would be different because they drove on the opposite side of the road.  Plus they have those black cabs; so cool.

She went on to tell me that I must make it to the seaside.  Go to Brighton with its pier.  Grab fish&chips from yesterday's newspaper.

She was so nice.

For most of the journey I sat back listening to some specialty playlist I made the night before and in complete wonderment of a 7-Day Project.  That same feeling I had this morning in the car was with me on that 3,000-mile trek three years ago.

All I can surmise is it being an adventurous feeling. One that has a tang of fearlessness.  And that reckless abandon, that tackle-the-world-all-in-a-day-no-matter-the-challenge, that completely animalistic-wild-roaming-between-jungles-and-open-range-without-any-caution-to-the-wind type of fearlessness can only come from a Maker who is just as brilliantly mad in such a courageous way.  How else can fearlessness hold such a great depth of peace where no obstacle can faze the untamed spirit?

I mean, nothing was going to get in the way of smiles and 70-mile an hour highway winds.  Nothing.

I wonder if this was the peace Jerry felt that night we talked?  Maybe God recognized my jealousy then. And maybe He did something about it.  Honestly, there's no other person-spirit-thing-God-Divine Being that could account for this unwavering peace.  Maybe this is God's way of telling me, "Remember that love you found in London?  Well, here it is again, Stateside."

What I know now is that I don't know what the next step is.  And I'm cool with that.

Thanks Jerry.