I Get Restless

One year and three months ago, an eighty-five year old woman in my congregation, who we affectionately refer to as our church grandmother, drove to Kentucky to look at the Ark Encounter, and then kept on driving. Moppy has always been a free spirit, so while this was unexpected, it wasn't really shocking.  She kept in touch with her daughter, who is something of a mentor to me, so we knew she was okay.  As I understand it, she went out to California, meandered her way down the West Coast, and then got holed up in New Mexico or Arizona for about half a year when Covid hit.  She did most of her driving at night and slept during the day, usually in her car.  Sometimes she found friends, or friends of friends to stay with. We all wondered when she would be back, but she didn't seem to be in any kind of a hurry.  She got a smartphone and called her granddaughters sometimes, who of course missed her dreadfully, and stayed on the road. Well, a couple weeks ago, her dau...

  When I was little, I was outside all the time.  There were sixty acres to explore, complete with a field, a pond, and thirty-five acres of woods.  In the summers, I went out every day in my playclothes (usually boys' painter pants and a t-shirt) and, usually with my sisters, met up with the neighbor boy to play in mud, build shelters in the woods, and terrorize the local wildlife. I got in trouble on a regular basis, for many reasons.  To be succinct, I was a horrible child.  I smacked and bit my siblings (on purpose), broke things (by accident), and often forgot clear commands that my parents had given me.  Usually they spanked me, and I thank God they did.  It's why I'm mostly civilized now.  But sometimes they put me in my room and told me to stay, and usually, I didn't.  I'd climb out the window and run off into the night in my pajamas.  Now, I'm not claiming to be unique in any of this.  There are plenty of people out there w...