Sky Blue Sparrow: My view for the day

I came home from a lovely vacation in Vermont a couple of weeks ago. My husband, daughter and I spent several days visiting my brother-in-law and sister-in-law at their lake house on Lake Champlain. It was positively the perfect vacation.

This is the view from their back deck. I settled there with my coffee most mornings.

Sometimes I had company. This is Blue.

Our first night, while we ate steaks and corn on the cob on that same deck, we enjoyed a show put on by the moon through the tree.

We took leisurely walks. This is my sister-in-law, Lorie, along with Blue and his sister, Belle. What is it about vacation that slows time, that feels spacious and enables us to breathe more deeply?

Well, the lake house was lovely.

Many of the glasses and dishes even had fish on them, to go with the lake house theme. How neat is that?

During our visit we sampled wine,

and ice cream.

We visited Cold Hollow Cider Mill and Cabot Cheese outlet, bringing home happy hour treats.

We took a pirate themed cruise

And visited a local farmers market where Bernie Sanders is sometimes sighted. But not today. Still, we made it home with a raspberry pie to die for.

One day, we were touring the island and my daughter snapped a picture of the lake at its finest, She sent it to one of her friends with the caption "My view for the day."

Her friend immediately responded by sending a picture she had snapped of a surly coworker looking into the camera and making an obscene gesture. "My view for the day."

It was pretty funny.

But it got me to thinking. Why don't we see the world as the marvelous, wondrous adventure it is while living our daily lives? Why is it so hard to wake each morning with the sense of awe that we are alive and living in such a marvelous time? We carry tiny computers in our pockets - practically unlimited information available 24 hours a day, for instance.

So, I am trying really hard to appreciate my "view for the day" and find the everyday sacred in life.

Coming home after our restful break and remembering how much we really love it here.

Enjoying my favorite pastime. This book is Absalom's Daughters, and I recommend it.

Making coffee.

Working in a school library so that children will have books to read.

And this view, especially. The one that comforts me, sustains me, and inspires me week by week. This is the view that helps me see beyond myself and remember that I am a child of God. My home church.