I don't wing away from the nest very often.
It's pretty much never, actually.
So the fact that I am flying halfway across this big fine nation tomorrow...away from my blondes and my brood - it makes my heart and brain spin a little.
This trip - that I had written off as impossible...due to budget and logistics and care-taking... is coming to fruition and I'm a smidge giddy.
California.
Since I was twelve years old, I've been bent on going.
I'm 31 - and the souls of my feet haven't sturdied themselves on Cali soil, yet.
Therefore, my glee and excitement are high and rising.
A grand group of girls and I are headed up to the northern stretch of the state - for a fast yet full, weekend jaunt. There will be lots of new things for me to see....and lots of ministry opportunities for me to participate in.
Is this real?
Three or so days of allowing thoughts to fully form in my mind without harried distractions. Two rather long plane rides to read and rest and wonder. Meals to eat in slow pace. Conversing with Spirit-filled adults. Allowing God and man to minister to me. Tending to self.
What is that?
It's a welcomed reprieve.
Every once in a while Mamas need some tending, too. Yes.
Today - we have laundry and a library trip and school duties. I plan to whip up something sweet to leave on the counter before I scurry away. I have a girl blonde and a toddler blonde to pray over and tend to...as I try to mend them of illness. I have emails to scribble and toilets to clean and a house to pick up.
But I'll also be packing. And packing always sends me into a merry step.
I have a travelers itch inside my body that never gets scratched....so to jet off to mountains and ranges and green - it gets me going.
With new scenery to take in, and something unfamiliar to see - I can feel the words weaving now. It goes from eyeballs to fingertips with me....so quickly in fact, that I have to carry a pocket notebook to capture it all down. Or else.... the next site flings the former one right away.
Yes - I'm expectant, and a bit wild over it all.
But....... I'm a mother.
And in this season my sole assignment is to tend the nest.
Serving and loving and teaching right here within these walls - it's what I do. It's what I love. It's what I constantly strive to better and enhance. It's my charge right now.
So soaring away for a while....it leaves me mixed. Happy and thrilled and eager - but pinched.
Pinched between knowing I need a short junket - and knowing where my current purpose resides.
So my strings will be anchored here in this home - as the jet whisks me away for a few days.
Just a few days, Kate. Go, and grin, and know that it is good.
Lord,
I bow and ask you to come and be here as I am not. Protect and bless and tend and be ever present in this place and in my people's hearts as they get along for the weekend. Let them laugh and have adventures and heal.. Please board the plane with me and minister to my heart in deeper ways than I've ever experienced. Come with me and speak to me and reveal Yourself as I seek You. Please get us all back to the nest, sharing stories and experiences, early next week. I'm so grateful that You are omnipresent. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this time. Please fill it. In Jesus name, Amen.
