Good morning…
My friend shared breathtaking photos from Bryce Canyon National Park in yesterday’s blog, Taught By A Tree. Inspired by our post, I walked downstairs and took off the wall a photo collage of our family during our pop up camper days. I snapped a few pictures of some of my favorite photos. Our long trips out west formed many of the sturdy roots beneath our family tree. Now, as an empty-nester, being nudged by nostalgia does my momma’s heart good. With our kids currently ages 26, 24, 22, and nearly 20, remembering back to our cross country adventures makes me smile, sentimental.
Bryce Canyon will always symbolize the most extreme emotions our family has experienced collectively. Here’s the way I remember the story.
We hit our most memorable low point as a family when we drove into Utah’s Zion National Park in swelter 109 degree weather. After a long, long day’s drive, our kids were talking all about the pizza iron pizzas they were excited to cook over the fire for dinner. The whole car melted down, in more ways than one, when we read a sign at the campground entrance: “No campfires allowed.” Due to risk of forest fires, our kids would have to forego the pizza iron delights which had been dancing in their heads all day.
After a lot of arguing, bickering, and complaining, we changed into our flip flops and bathing suits and walked down to soak in the cold stream with a crowd of strangers. We cooled off a bit. Then we hatched a plan to go into the tiny town and have dinner at the local pizza parlor instead. Our tummies got happily full. We even had dessert at the charming ice cream shop. Our spirits lifted into laughter. On the way out of town, we stopped at the used book store and everyone made a few choice selections. We drove back to our campsite, turned on the camper’s air conditioner, and settled in for a night of quietly reading ourselves to sleep.
After two days of great hikes, beautiful views, and creek-hiking in a cascading river, the third morning we broke down camp and drove up from the dry, stifling heat of the valley. Within two scenic hours, rising 4,000 feet, we arrived at a family high point to be wowed by the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park. By sunset that same day, we turned on the camper’s heater to brave the chilly drizzle dipping “somewhere in the thirties.” From bickering to laughing, from under 4,000 feet to over 8,000, from dry to damp, from air conditioner to heater, from 109 degrees to 30-something, experiential extremes stretched us wide and thin.
As a family trapped on a three week camping trip, we nosedived into our low point and ascended to our high point in the gorgeous state of Utah. I often think back on those few memorable days, reminding myself that we are always traveling through valley times and mountaintop experiences in our ordinary lives. We can’t cling to what we love and we can’t avoid the things we hate. No extreme emotional states, immense joy or deepest sorrow, remains stagnant, forever, unchanging. The highs and lows of life are both temporary. Oh, if we could just flow like a river through!
As we meander the back roads of life, we are wise to remember: whatever high peak or deep valley surrounds us right now, with God and time we will journey to a different experience. Up and down. Inside and out. Highs and lows. Before and after. Day and night. The rhythms of God are constantly ebbing and flowing. Riding on the current with our Creator, we are gradually guided through all of life’s stretching extremes.
God’s Message yet again: “Go stand at the crossroads and look around. Ask for directions to the old road, the tried-and-true road. Then take it. Discover the right route for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16-17, MSG).
…Sue…
