Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

The day for the kick off to the Great Road Trip of 2009 with Mom & Laura that I had been planning for 3 1/2 months was now just one day away.  I was stressed.

 Tom & I had been working like crazy for six weeks trying to make the house perfect for our guests and even now, at the last minute, I was frantically trying to get everything done that I needed to do and wanted to do before I left the next morning.

I was trying to get the laundry done while packing and calling my mom about every ten minutes to make sure she had everything under control (being the self-proclaimed leader and chief organizer in the family as oldest child).  She had everything under much better control than I did, of course.

Laura – being the perennial disorganized and well-meaning, but rather scatter-brained wonderful personality she is – was another story.  This was what had me stressed the most.  I hadn’t talked with her in days and couldn’t get hold of her today, despite leaving messages on her answering machine at home.  Mom hadn’t talked with her, either.

By lunch time, when Tom came home, I was fearing the worst and expecting that all of my finely honed plans of months were rapidly coming unraveled because my sister was "not with the program."  I went over all of my plans for the next two days again with Tom and how I expected Laura to respond, which would be totally out of sync with what I envisioned and had talked with her about.  Mom was on board.  That left Laura, who was, as usual, the unknown capricious quantity.  

I told myself to CHILL – that she was my sister and that I loved her with all my heart and that none of my plans mattered in the least compared to having this time together with each other and Mom.  The problem in reality was me, not her, I knew.  I was being compulsive/obsessive about this trip being perfect in the way I thought it should be, but I was really causing just the opposite to happen.

My afternoon went better and I finally talked with Laura Monday night.  It went about as I expected regarding my plans, but I had resigned myself to that being the case already, so tried "going with the flow," as Tom had advised.

The first leg of my trip was to be taken alone.  I was flying out of New Orleans to Dallas, then Abilene, early the next morning (Tuesday).  I asked Laura to come to the airport with Mom to meet me when I arrived about 2 p.m.  She said she would.

The (okay, MY) plan was for me to get rested up Tuesday afternoon and spend time with Mom getting things together so that we could get on the road in Mom’s car toward Picayune as early Wednesday morning as possible.  It wasn’t going to be too early, at best, because Laura had a commitment to teach a Bible class to 2 year olds Wednesday morning and said she wouldn’t be finished until 11:15 a.m.  Mom & I were going to come pick her up at her house and get on the road. 

But, I kept telling Tom on Monday while I was stressing so badly that while I knew Laura meant well, I was not expecting that we would leave Abilene on Wednesday before 1 p.m.  In fact, I told him I was certain we would not leave Abilene before 1 p.m.  I told him that I thought the hardest part of this whole road trip was going to be getting out of Abilene.

Monday night was finally drawing to a close, with me still running around getting all I needed in my suitcase and ready for my trip.  It was late and I was tired.  I looked at the clock when I finally slipped into bed and it was nearly 11:30 p.m.  I set the alarm for 6 a.m. and tried to go to sleep, knowing I needed rest for the days ahead.

I asked God to forgive me for my impervious ways and to bless me in my travel.  I’d been praying about all of this for weeks and thanked Him again that I was feeling well and asked Him to bless us all.  I promised to be more laid back (try to be, anyway) and to relish each moment we would have together and enjoy it for what (ever) it was.  I earnestly desired to have this time with Mom & Laura and vowed not to let myself get in the way.

Sometime or other much later, I finally fell asleep.

 To Be Continued . . .