Weekend Getaway

Good things can come out of bad situations. We have found many good things this summer; one of them is that I made a new friend.

Upon hearing of our hope to get away this weekend, my friend generously urged us to use her family's lake house, on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. It was wonderful.

We arrived late Friday night, in the dark and so tired we just tumbled into bed, with no clear sense of what lay around us. Saturday morning...all I could do was soak in the peace and the beauty. I sat on the deck, looking up at the green leaves wavering against a deep blue sky, and then out through a gap in the treetops at what promised, when the light fog lifted, to be the waters of the lake but at that moment might have been the tops of clouds in a valley far below. And I was sure of two things: that at that time, in that place, I was utterly happy, and that I understood why green and blue are my favorite colors.

Later, walking with David on the deserted beach, I was again struck by the aching loveliness of this place. Mind you, I had given up on ever finding beauty within a reasonable car ride of Chicago. Here it is. I'll put it up against any of our favorite places in Ireland, Scotland, or New England. It might well come out on top.

The house, too, is enveloping. It is rare to enter an empty house and feel immediately that you belong. But that is the nature of this house. It is built for large groups of people -- of family. It welcomes you into the fold. I understand just by being here, surrounded by the designs and choices her family has made in creating this home, how my new friend developed her warm and embracing spirit.

I wrote earlier about the importance of being able to recharge during these "rest and recovery" weeks. Getting away physically is so helpful. It becomes too easy, in my regular life, to dwell on hypotheticals and uncertainties. A change of scenery, a change of pace, refocuses me. I rediscover each time that life can be good, that I feel lucky to be here on Earth, that it is wonderful to feel joyful in the here and now.