Spirituality

My day and a half break from work this weekend gave me the chance to spend some quality time with some of the people I love most in this world. Consequently today has been an odd day and I've had quite a bit on my mind, so forgive me, if you will, but I'd like to indulge in my sentimentality for a moment.

I get to see some pretty amazing views in my travels. They really make you take a step back and just admire the beauty of nature and life. On my flight last Saturday I saw the sunset. It was spectacular. There were clouds behind us and the sun was just peeking over the top. From my vantage point I could also see below the clouds and all of the vivid fiery colors of the sunset made it look like the earth was glowing under the clouds. It was awesome.

On my flight today I was feeling especially contemplative. I put in my headphones and turned on my mp3 player while gazing out the window. It's not often that I don't feel like listening to upbeat music, but today I didn't. I was listening to some rather mellow stuff when a favorite song of mine from a "Little Women" came on. It's called "Small Umbrella In the Rain" for those interested in searching for it. It's a duet - a love song, really. I was listening and toward the end of the song it really is just beautiful as the two voices blend perfectly and express so much more than the words alone. As I was listening the thought hit me "Yeah...yeah, this is what it's all about." It was kind of a gentle reminder, a tender confirmation of a powerful, yet simple and beautiful truth.

All of this came after a day of thinking about friendship, love, marriage, the future etc. This may sound a bit hokey, but I really just love my friends. And I know that they love me. It's very uplifting. We laugh, we cry, we're there for each other and there are no unhealthy expectations. We're just oursevles and expect everyone else to be themselves. I love it. I absolutely love it.

So all of this was on my mind as I was soaring across the western desert, and I was soaking it all up. Then we landed...

My reverie was slightly destroyed by the conversation of two of the speakers who had a slightly jaded view about dating and marriage.

My life was somewhat normalized when we stopped at Wendy's and the magic 8 ball game on my kid's meal told me that I'd get married.

Between all of this we saw a man who had a good foot of toilet paper hanging out the back of his pants, and we just didn't have the heart to tell him.