Reflections Driving to Camp

Well, we're off. Hannah is driving, and we're headed down the mountain.  Gravity pulls us so fast we hardly have to use the gas. The green hills flash past, but it's mostly trees. I wonder how long it will be till I can't see the little white flowers anymore. The sky is grey today, but not a dull drab uniform kind of grey. It's a beautiful bluish white grey. Kind of peaceful. Now I see a bit of blue sky and bright white clouds ahead. They're so puffy and soft. I could just lie down in them and dream the sweetest most peaceful dreams. The road has flattened out now, but I can still see the hills behind us. There's more blue sky. It's all stretched out in front of us. It's like a huge giant mixed the sky and the clouds together and then stretched them as far as his arms could reach. But there are little puffy bits among them too. There's one big low cloud up there. It's a grey storm cloud, but the top is puffy white. The bottom is flat and shadowy. It seems to hang by invisible strings. We just passed some old deserted buildings. One may have been a gas station, and the other was a motel. There was also a tiny garage. The parking lot was sunk in the ground and full of weeds. The boards were sagging and the paint was flaked off. The little windows looked so lonely. How strange to think that not so long ago it must have been a thriving little place. There were people whose lives were entwined with this little building. People laughed and cried, loved and hated. And now it's empty, neglected, and alone. It's fate will probably be the wrecker's ball or the relentless licking flames that finally consume everything. It will be pushed out of the way to make room for some new development, some new technology. Such is the fate of too many old buildings. But what else can be done? This is life, inescapable and unchangeable. But maybe there will be something more. God promises to restore. And perhaps when the restoration comes, all good that has been lost will be found again.

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