CATALOGUES

It is catalogue time! and somewhere along this journey, we begam receiving a yearly catalog filled with amazing photos of very upscale cruises with details of voyages priced way above our price point. My general treatment of this wish book is to look at the pictures, remove some of the exquisite photographs to upcycle into greeting cards and usher the book to its final resting place, the garbage can. I must have been bored because this year I read some of the taglines:

“Tailor your retreat to your taste with a selection of amenities.”

“The journey is the destination.”

“Your eyes relax as you scan the horizon, your skin warmed by what you see.”

“Every moment is precious and to ensure you feel free to embrace each opportunity….”

And my favorite,

“The world - marvelous, enigmatic and beautiful - begs to be explored, engaged and experienced.”

How different might we live IF we lived daily as the cruise lines promises we can on their ships for an enormous amount of money for 5, 7, or 14 days? The space, no matter what it looks like, occupied by you and I is marvelous, mysterious, and beautiful. It is pleading to be explored, engaged, embraced, and experienced. It is all at our fingertip. Look for it.

Some of you are wondering how I can come to this conclusion when political ads just finished attacking and vilifying fellow Americans, we are content to judge people as good or bad for being unique or not sharing our viewpoint, revenge is the name of the game, humankind continuously finds a murkier and deeper depth to ways to hurt each other, and violence is the solution for every problem. What is marvelous or mysterious and beautiful about our world?

Think on these three examples: I recently held a three-month-old baby girl…the first baby I have touched in years. Her parents were married a little over a year ago. The sensation of holding her, watching my husband hold her and feeling the love of her parents and family by choice fill the room, was marvelous and beautiful. Nothing compares to watching the trees undress and prepare for winter and watching them redress every spring. It is marvelous and a mystery. Humanity can explain it, but humanity can’t stop it. Perhaps the most marvelous, mysterious, and beautiful thing we can do for ourselves is to leave the home of feeling unworthy, of not being good enough, or not having enough and embark on a journey to healthy self-esteem, that you are enough, and that you have enough within you to accomplish the trip. This journey is the destination, and you get to take the trip every day as you explore, engage, and experience the marvelous, mysterious, and beautiful life at your fingertip.

Colossians 4:4

PONDER THIS THOUGHT---Every moment is precious. Explore, engage, and experience them as if they were your last.