there and back again

i went to Nashville this past weekend, and decided that i just need to go back more often. 

it was the first time in 5-6 weeks that i've tried to be awake during the daytime and sleep at night.  it was a weird experience...and to think normal people do it all the time!!  i am just happy my friend didn't really beat me awake at 8:30 like i told her to.  i gave fair warning that i might grunt.  she let me sleep til just past 9, which is a wonderful waking-up time.  i've always thought so. 

we left her man at home saturday and i got a brief overview of Nashville- saw Centennial Park, looked through the window-door of the Pantheon because i wasn't going to pay the entrance fee, then we sat on the swinging bench nearby and talked about boys and flowers and sunshine and then other boys, work, and a couple girls.  then the tour guide on a passing trolley let slip that the pond was really only a foot deep.   we promised daniel we'd have some girl time, and so we weren't about to let that go to waste :)   included in our zip through the city was Opryland.  lemme say i'd probably pay alot to see a Christmas program there.  it's incredible!  and yet...it was the little water fountains that captivated us the most.  surrounded by grandeur, and we were laughing at the little water fountains.

we've become so numb to everything around us that it's almost disturbing to me.   people constantly need something bigger, better, brighter to interest them than whatever they were looking at 5 minutes ago that eventually they wind up in a place like Opryland.  their jaws drop to the spotless, polished floor, they get a crick in their neck and leave.  i doubt they think how cool normal life is after that.  i didn't, really.  but if someone would just turn their brain ON for half a second, they might wonder how cool it is that leaves are changing colors, that  just thinking is enough to make your leg move you, that boys will NEVER understand girls, that tiny seeds grow up into huge trees. 

humans have stopped thinking about "boring" things.  we've lost our ability to admire the "normal."  that "normal" is FREAKIN' AMAZING, GUYS!!!  nobody likes biology class because of the lab hours.  good grief- put DOWN the textbook, GO OUTSIDE, and just let nature impress you for once!  you don't need to understand the Krebs cycle to be impressed at sunlight making a leaf turn green (you need to pass the tests, though...this is not me advocating that you not do homework or slack off).

there are too many days when i have to make myself see the wonder in typical things, when i'm so frustrated i just seal my mouth shut, when a patient calls me for the 15th time that hour, when i just miss the green light and i'm running behind schedule, when that boy says something without thinking a second (or third) time, or when the hot water turns cold and your hair is half-rinsed. but every little thing becomes ten times more worth it when you are able to recognize that "this" (whatever the "this" is in your life currently) IS life, and that's just a fact that needs to be celebrated more.  alot more.  there's something to think about, laugh about (later), celebrate- if only because it IS normal.  you think life is dull now?  what about if all your inconveniences went away, the "typical" vanished, and "everyday" never happened again and you were only surrounded by grandeur that got bigger and better and brighter constantly? you'd be like those tacky tourists at Opryland, eyes popping out, snapping hundreds of pictures of the building, trees, stores, decorations, wedding parties, elegance…and totally walking past the little water fountains.