Back on the road again

My friend Rose and I both agree that it is way too easy for both of us to get caught up in the stresses and pressures of the Pre - Christmas - shopping centre - commercialism supreme - "oh why isn't it snowing?" mania/ madness that bombards our senses every year..

My friend Rose and I are very similar in that we find ourselves being rather emotionally vulnerable at Christmas time. As hard as we try we usually end up 'disappointed'.

Rose and I have our own secret dreams / fantasies / visions of what Christmas ought to look like - but in essence we agree that it hardly ever turns out to be what we would hope it to be.

So, last year Rose and I decided to escape for a few days during the crazy days. Last year was a great success. We soaked in the beauty of our land and breathed in the goodness of God while many others where madly dashing around spending money they didn't need to. Purchasing 'goodies' they had no idea they really needed until they had them hurling through the pushy checkouts.

So successful was our Pre - Christmas madness diversion last year that we decided (on the spur of the moment) that we would do it again.

My friend Rose and I loaded up her van and hit the open road.

We decided on the Yorke Peninsula this time. Check out the view we had from the van.


If you were driving towards these magnificent clouds wouldn't you be in glorious anticipation? We were! Man those clouds were just AWESOME!!! This was going to be a great diversion.

Come on - admit it. That water looks inviting - right?

And not a manic shopping centre in sight - Blessings.


Tempting right? Unfortunately the tide was low (excuse number 1) so Rose and I decided to just reminisce about the days when nothing would have stopped us from running into that water.
Some of our excuses were
- age (55 and 59) - lot's of verty young swimmers were hanging about.
- not sure if knees would cope with the steps?
- What if we scare the other beach dwellers with our lumps and bumps (they don't sell neck to knees anymore;))
- excuses, escuses, excuses.

We sat and viewed the wonderful deserted beach and pondered the goodness of God.

As I was enjoying the view a thought came into my head. "What if this was Christmas day - right now - Christmas day. Would I feel blessed? Would I be disappointed in the day? The answer was simple. If it was Christmas day I would be so grateful for the peace and love and gratitude I was feeling as the warm breeze caressed my face; as the serenity of the water soothed my soul; as the friend sitting next to me embraced my reflectiveness. Sure, I would have like it more if my family were there to share the view, the blessings, the relaxed wonder of His goodness.

Christmas - does not need shopping centres. Christmas - does not need fancy wrapped presents. Christmas - does not need stress and disappointments. Christmas - does not even need snow, or lights, or decorations, or turkey or....

Please do not get me wrong. Christmas can be enhanced by all of the above. I think that is part of my vulverability at Christmas - the expectations. People can be blessed by all of the above. All of the above can draw people together.

Hold on - I don't think I am expressing myself very well here.

I guess I will just say that as I sat on that bench and looked at the glistening water and the crazy clouds I was so grateful that I was not getting stressed to the max in some shopping centre. I was having my soul restored.

The water was inviting.

Rose and I were directed by a bloke with a surf board (who was there one min and invisible the next- now I am not suggesting he was an angel - although ......) to a path that supposedly led to a 'beautiful' part of the beach.

Why not?

We followed the path. We climbed some sand dunes. We entered a secluded stretch of beach.

It was indeed beautiful.

It was indeed secluded.

Very secluded.

Rose looked at the water and then looked at me.

Could we?

Should we?

"But we don't have our bathers!" we both chorused (with a little giggle).

Like I said...

It was secluded.

Very secluded.

So, we stripped down to undies and ran (at superman speed) into the very cold, refreshing, revitalizing water.

We smiled at each other.

Lifted our hands to the sky.

Did a little joyful dance.

And then ran right back (at double super man speed) to our clothes.


Such a fantastic trip.

Thanks Rose.

Thanks God.