...the book I finally finished last night. I have been picking up, working on for nearly a month, when I habitually read myself to sleep every night. I wrote several days ago, in a 'pondering' blog, quoting a passage from: "Through Painted Deserts: Light, God and Beauty on the Open Road." Probably opening myself up for a lawsuit, but it so spoke to my heart, I was compelled to share.
The travelers have made their way to Oregon, the Land of Coffee Shops on Every Corner. This trip occurred before Starbucks was a household name, had become a descriptive word, generic like Xerox and Kleenex. Book is copyrighted in 2005, but was published previously with a different title: "Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance". So Don expected to pay 25 cents for a cup of coffee, that only came in 'black', without having to answer a lot of questions about size, ingredients, add-ons. They are sitting in the coffeehouse, he and fellow traveler, Paul.
Paul asks Don what would make him most happy. They consider, talk, wonder...then Paul says:
"I have been thinking how what we really want is for people to love us. God,...friends, parents. It seems like life is all about that stuff... I have been thinking about things and I just feel like God put us here to enjoy Him, and He gave us free will so it is tough sometimes, because people use their free will selfishly, but I think He also created us to enjoy Him, that He is love..."
So now I am wondering how things would be if we didn't have that freedom? If the universe was ruled in an unequivocal state by an authority figure that set standards? Made demands without the 'grace factor'? We had to meet daily quotas to survive? But we go on our merry way, oblivious to the glorious/mundane things of this planet. People and situations we are so accustomed to having in our lives that we fail to be thankful, take notice, appreciate as gifts and blessings... until they are gone.
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