Lady Traveler : Jul 26, 2016

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Lady Traveler Fever

Lake Michigan @ Silver Lake Park sand dunes 2016

Anything, everything, little or big

becomes an adventure

when the right person shares it.

I'm sitting in my living room, sipping water and taking my morning vitamins,

daydreaming of our past road trips,

and planning for our next big road trip to California.

Rob walks in from our screened porch and notices that familiar look on my face.

"Where are you now? Here? Myrtle Beach? Lake Michigan? California?"

"All of the above. I feel that vagabond spirit coming over me."

"And I can see it. I have an idea.
Why don't we go to Dreyer Island next week for a few days?"

Yes!

Upon returning home a few weeks ago, we decided to stay home for the summer.

The decision sounded good at the moment.

Traveling in our home-on-wheels three weeks after my knee replacement surgery

was the perfect Physical Therapy for me.

But now, the thought of lounging around our home for two months,

sitting in our screened porch in the evenings

while thunder storms surround us.

Ahh, nothing could be finah

than to be in Carolina...

Daydreaming in Springfield, Missouri 2015
Shawn Watson Photography

That lasted until mid-July.

Hot July. Hotter August on the way.

Now we shall pack a few items,

and off we'll go,

just an hour north on Lake Murray,

to Dreyer Island.

Everywhere I go people say to me,

"I wish I could travel like you."

Last week at a writers conference

I met a woman face-to-face that

friended me on Facebook.

Smiling, she told me,

"When I grow up I want to be just like you."

Smiling, I simply answered,

"We never know where our journey will take us.

We must learn to be happy right where we are.

We must be happy with who we are.

Then we can enjoy our journey

wherever it takes us."

Dreaming of Myrtle Beach, SC

God has given each of us a unique journey.

Through good times and challenges

your journey will change you, and will influence those around you,

even those you have never met face-to-face.

Always take a moment to encourage those who seem lost,

or someone who just might need a hug.

Now Popcorn must take me for my morning walk,

which is part of my PT.

I wish you oceans of cool summer blessings!

Share each other's burdens,

and in this way

obey the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

www.sharonleaf.com

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Comfort or Challenge? Decisions that direct your journey

I was living a comfortable life in Southern California when the opportunity came for my husband and I to volunteer on a World War II ship to transport Russian Jews from Sochi, Russia, to Haifa, Israel. Rob jumped at the chance to live on a World War II ship for 14 months, but this 48-year-old lady panicked. You see, I couldn't swim, so I had to face my biggest fear--water. Sailing across the Atlantic was my worst nightmare, so I had to make the decision: Comfort, or CONFRONT my fear. Comfort, or step up to the CHALLENGE. After much prayer and inner conflict, I inhaled a deep breath of faith, waved farewell to my safe shore, and dived into a new ocean.

I had gotten my sea legs by day four, when out of nowhere, off the gulf of Mexico, the MS Restoration caught the tail-end of Hurricane Hector. Panicked, I dropped my cleaning bucket and staggered to our cabin and jumped in my bunk. My life jacket fell from the rafter above, so I grabbed it, wrapped it tightly around me, and prayed as I fastened each buckle. If I had been Catholic, this would have been the perfect time to repeat the rosary. Instead, I cried out, "God, help me! Remember, I can't swim!"

As the ocean's surge tossed the ship with a vengeance, my Bible fell off an overhead shelf and landed on my bunk. With trembling hands I thumbed through the pages until I stopped at Isaiah 43. I tried drowning the sound of the waves beating against steel by shouting, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you." While the Pacific raged, it was God's peace that flooded me, and I knew we would somehow survive Hector.

I had read this scripture before, but it had never given me as much comfort as it did that day at sea. I love how God gives us the right words of encouragement at just the right moment.

Now, back home on dry land, whenever I feel challenged, I recall the sound of the ocean's mighty roar, and I quote Isaiah 43:16, and once again, I am at peace.

A Season for Love...my short love story

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

For the single, for the lonely, there is hope, and a season.

Here is my seasonal love story:

The year, 1984. Forty-one-years-old. Two failed marriages. The recent loss of my beloved Mother. 1987, life didn't look too promising. After working all day, I'd come home, and after a three-mile run and a cold shower, I'd indulge myself in my latest adventure-filled book. But this night I threw the book across the room. "God, please tell me there's more!" Then the phone rang. It was my friend, Tia, begging me to accompany her to a new singles meeting at a nearby church.

"I don't want to go alone," Tia moaned. After surviving her own divorce, she was tired of dating too many I-like-you-I'll-call-you guys. That's why I'd given up dating months ago. Stop-looking-and-let-God was my new motto, thus the reason for my nightly runs and cold showers. Tia, on the other hand, had been visiting churches with large singles ministries. "You have to go with me," Tia pleaded, so what could I say?

So the next night Tia headed for the front row. I insisted on the seats nearest the back door. I yawned as a young slightly-built blonde announced their upcoming March beach trip, and I glanced at my watch as the mild-mannered speaker closed the meeting. The only intriguing part of the evening was a tall, tanned, blue-eyed man wearing cowboy boots who was giving directions and moving chairs. Stop-looking-and-let-God I reminded myself. It didn't matter anyway. I had no plans of returning.

The following Thursday night I was half way out the front door for my evening run when the phone rang. "Ignore it," I whispered, but something inside said, Answer it.

"I'm Rob and I'm calling to thank you for attending our meeting last Friday night." Within minutes we were talking like we knew each other. Now I was curious.

"Are you the guy in the cowboy boots?" That made my heart skip a beat?

"Guilty," he answered.

My heart began to pound as I dove in. I had nothing to lose. "I was married sixteen years."

"I was married sixteen years too."

"I have a twenty-year-old daughter."

"So do I."

This will cause the conversation to come to a screeching halt. "I also have a thirteen-year-old son," I added.

"Me too."

An hour later he asked, "Will you come to our meeting tomorrow night?"

What could I say?

The next evening I scoped the room, but the cowboy was nowhere in sight. I turned to make my exit, but as my shaky hand pushed the door handle, a voice inside said, Don't leave! I reluctantly found a seat on the back row, and unknowingly, the handsome cowboy sat in front of me. I tapped his shoulder. I had nothing to lose.

"Are you Rob?"

"Yes. Are you Sharon?"

I nodded.

I returned that night to check out the stranger who invaded my life over the telephone. Little did I know that the next season of my life had just begun.

I proposed a year later.

What could he say?

A major moral to this story: Always answer your phone. You never know who is on the other end.

(For more details, read LADY and the SEA, a novel based on a true story--mine. www.sharonleaf.com. Available on Amazon.com and e-books.

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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Lady Traveler Fever