Destination: 301 Keswick Glen -- a gorgeous place to land

Today I wasn’t feeling exactly up to par. Had something to do with dancing at a family wedding on 11/11/11. My seventy something ankles weren’t used to dancing with an Arthur Murray instructor but it sure was alot of fun. Twelve piece orchestra to boot!

So today as I was heading to an Open House, I thought I would try something new: just letting go. “Take me there,” I said to noone in particular, but hoping the Holy Spirit was paying attention. He always does. I had been there two times previously and it was a bit out of the way and both times I had come from entirely different directions.

Next thing I knew, I was turning a different way altogether at Boswell’s Tavern, right on 22, left on Columbia Road, right on Loving? Loving Road, yes….I did remember it intersected with Campbell somewhere, and before I knew it I was at Keswick Glen having come from an entirely different way from any I knew existed.

And I was ten minutes early!

So, another rule for God Trips, “just let go.”

And tonight the acupuncturist took care of the dancing feet. So it’s all good.

“Those aren’t gas pains, honey,” she said. “You are in labor.”

I couldn’t figure out what was keeping him, as I paced up and down the driveway noticing there was a crack in the retaining wall of our University Hills property. Fnally he showed up with some story about running out of gas and the good Samaritan with the gas can who came along near the Austin airport.

No mind, I didn’t much like hospitals, and Celina was born about half an hour after we finally got there.  Her father doesn’t remember the story, but when we celebrated Celina’s birthday  Thursday, I brought her the proof: my l966 diary.

God trips can be into the past if you want them to be. But my favorite part of them is to enjoy the unpredictable unfolding NOW.

There was much to talk about: Celina and David’s recent trip to my birthplace, New York City, discovering the gardens built on the old El (see past posting on that one with Christine) and seeing “Momma Mia” on Broadway.

It was the last warm Indian Summer day of the year, and we found a wonderful outdoor restaurant in nearby Crozet where we could dine outside and the milar balloon Alan and I gave her bounced in the breeze dodging leaves falling from nearby trees. It was magical, and the waiter brought us three (yes, 3) delightful desserts: key lime pie, cheesecake and chocolate brownie cupcake with a candle in the middle.

The next step? How do we walk  off that unexpected yet totally welcomed indulgence? Why climbing Humpback Rocks on the glorious Blue Ridge Parkway, made even better by the amber sunglasses we both were wearing.

It doesn’t matter how you dress on a God trip. Just go with the spirit of adventure. I had on a skirt, but did that stop me? Nope. Didn’t have hiking shoes on either. We just took one step at a time, stopping at every bench (for me) and the view at the top was spectacular. Would love to meet the person who put in those benches and thank him or her personally.

Never be concerned on a God trip about calories.  There is always a way to burn them off!  Enjoy.  We did.

 And any problems that life was giving us got lost on that mountain top, a great place to gain perspective about everything.

Carrying the flame of freedom to Cairo

A big change –the Egyptian revolution didn’t stop l8 Ambassadors (i.e. guests) from the Cairo Friendship Force to spend their intended three weeks in the USA, their last week here with us.   The Friendship Force was started in Atlanta by Jimmy Carter on a suggestion by his minister in 1977 when he said the only way we can really understand each other is to put our legs under someone else’s table.  Our farewell dinner for our new friends from Cairo is Monday night. (www.ffc.avenue.org)

Alun Ward, talented potter at the Blue Ridge Pottery in Greene County suggested that he give 18 of his handmade candleholders to our Ambassadors.   “Why not fill them with American made candles and let them take home the flame of freedom from America,” he said.

Great idea, I thought, and went in search of handmade American candles. A God trip!  Our Ambassadors Aida, 84 and an artist (www.glassartmuseum.com) and Shadia, 65, her delightful friend, both widows of Egyptian generals, accompanied me and God led us to C’ville Arts Cooperative on the downtown mall.  There we found l8 beeswax candles made by Raven, called Flames by Raven.  They will carry home the flame of freedom and the world shall be just a bit brighter.  All from American bees, clay and ingenuity.  And one man’s great idea!

Getting in touch with him was difficult as his work took him from Virginia to Venezuela, but luck had it that he found the renter himself, and I just had to put it together.

The renters relied on their friends at Lake Monticello to look at the inside of the house as they were in New Jersey closing on theirs and needed a quick decision. I met the friends Saturday, and it was like old home week. They were from Rockville Centre, not far from Malverne on Long Island where I spent those early teenage awkward years. You know, braces and all that!

The one bright light those years was a special relationship I had with a young man who picked me up in his birds egg blue Sunbeam Talbot and whisked me off to Cafe Geiger on 86th Street between lst and 2nd Avenue in New York before taking me to the Old Met to see Rigoletto, Cosi Fan Tutte, Carmen, La Boheme and when that season was over, the New York City Ballet. A tall, naive teenager, I felt like Cinderella everytime John picked me up. For years I wondered whatever happened to that first love of mine as my parents moved me to Connecticut at age 15 and we lost touch. You just don’t forget the first person who made you feel beautiful.

So when conversation turned around to who we might know in Malverne, I mentioned John.  Imagine the wonderful surprise when they told me  John and his wife were their very best friends.

I just got off the phone with him after catching up on 55 years.  They are going to make a God trip to us someday.

You just have to wonder because you can’t make this stuff up.  Sometimes God trips just come to you.

My sister, Patricia and I still take God trips together

My sister and I grew up in a family which I only recently realized was not entirely normal.    Most people who start out going to the movies, go to the movies.  Not our family. 

Dad and Mom called them “mystery trips.”  My younger sister, Patricia and I would think we were going to go see a “Ma and Pa Kettle” movie but in the trunk of the Buick were out little blue suitcases packed for who knows where.  One time we ended up in Cape Cod.  Dad followed the red lights of the car in front of us because that was all we could see in the pea soup fog.  We ended up following the man’s car into his garage. Guess where we slept that night?  (The family did take us in.  After all, we had our pajamas and toothbrush.)

Another time we thought we were going to an amusement park and we ended up in the Thousand Islands.   Another time our car broke down in a town so small they didn’t have a motel, and we stayed in the home of the local banker who just happened by the gas station.

God Trip Rule: What I learned from those trips is to simply let go.

God trips are all about NOT knowing where you will end up.  All you need to do is follow where God leads you.  You might have an idea of where you think you are going, but as Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

I am writing this blog because it is on these trips that I have learned the most about trust.  I am never late, never in the wrong place, never with the wrong person, never lost.  Rather I am on time, in the right place, with the right person and always where I am supposed to be. 

 As Mitch Hedberg once said, “I’m sick of following my dreams.  I’m just going to ask them where they’re going and hook up with them later.”

Meanwhile, enjoy the trip…and let me know where you end up.  And pack some pj’s.

He was great! Just a few weeks into driving, he did U-turns in the middle of downtown Lynchburg like a pro. Two of them.

We finally found a place to park near the James River Heritage Trail, unpacked our lunch of spicy chicken, diced potatoes, curried goat, grapes and cherries courtesy of Mahabuba whose party we visited earlier in the day and watched kayakers paddle lazily down the river.  If you had told me this God Trip would include delicious food from Bangladesh on a rock, I would never have believed you.  But Eusebio is from Mumbai, and it fit.

God trips never cease to amaze me, as I had wanted to go hiking, but didn’t mention it to Eusebio when he said he had never been to Lynchburg.  I wanted this to be his trip.  What did we end up doing? Can you believe Lynchburg has a wildlife paradise downtown along the river, and then up a creek near a beautiful mansion called Point of Honor once owned by the personal physician to Patrick Henry?  We crossed the creek with skyscrapers in view, turned right through a green tunnel of foliage to find the old railroad tunnel they told us about at the Visitor’s Center.  (The video there is done in fast forward and is one of the funniest introductions to a town I have ever seen.)

Sure enough, on our way, skyscrapers just up the escarpment, a small deer came out of the greenery and looked at us as if to say, “What are YOU doing here?”

Kayakers on the James from Percival Island where we had lunch

I want to go back to this fascinating town and take another look.  There is so much to see, and thanks Eusebio for the great hike!

All I know is that God trips are the ultimate in using our gift of free will. As Proverbs 16:9 states, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Will let you know where we end up.   Later. 

P.S.  Willow is my nickname (another story for another time)

Mr. Electric showed up in minutes

His name was Tommy Dudley and what he said in the Yellow Pages was true.

My sister had been out of town for a few days and when she returned she noticed the waterfall that cooled the water in her fish pond had stopped.  We had a heat index of 105 degrees yesterday, and her fish were hiding under a rock and the algae was growing.

“I will have to wait until Monday,” she said mournfully.  “My electrician can’t come until then.”

Remembering that old adage, “Let your fingers do the walking”, we looked in the Yellow Pages under Electrician, and there he was:  Mr. Electric.  His ad read, “Your Expectation: Immediate Response.”  She called him, and within half an hour he and his companion arrived in two vans, diagnosed the problem, (no, it wasn’t the chipmunk eating through the wires as we had thought), did a temporary fix until a new pump which had shorted could be purchased, and voila! Water falling.

What else did it say in their ad? “We have the power to make things better!”

You can believe it.  After all, it was a God Trip.

God Trip Rule: One door closes, another opens and sometimes you don’t even have to leave the house.

When my daughter, Christine reached for her camera on the boat trip around Manhattan, May 10th, it was gone.  It had all  her family vacation pictures from Florida, Virginia and New York City and special ones of her visit with her best friend, Amy in Alexandria.   But as my friend, Kate always says, “God’s delays are not God’s denials.”   We both had faith it would show up some day.

So where did her camera go?   Read the email I received yesterday:

Hi!

I am emailing you because my mother found a hot pink camera in a taxi in NYC and
I found a picture of a computer with this website and recognized you! I’m sorry
for looking at the pictures, but I wanted to see if I could return the camera.

Please let me know where I can mail it to you. I live in Venezuela, but I can
send it to you during the weekend of June 18th because I will be flying to
Florida.

If it is not yours but you know who it belongs to, please let me know so I can
contact them

Thank you!

Alexandra

Yes.  Christine will get her camera back from someone in Venezuela and as God trips always go:  we have made a new friend.    Thank you, Alexandra.  You have a great Mom.   Maybe some day we can all meet in New York City.

Christine on the boat just before realizing her camera was missing out of her shorts pocket

“The greatest of all human needs is to feel connected.”      Darryl Kollman