Slow

Fish and visitors stink after three days. -- Benjamin Franklin

I love the way people used to visit relatives for long periods of time. I'm fascinated by books in which characters spend a month with a cousin or a summer with friends. I guess traveling used to be such a big deal that you had to make the most of it. Now we pop from city to city, or state to state, or country to country, for just a few nights.

And we wear ourselves out in the process! We rush through the travel and then try to squeeze as much activity or as many visits as possible into a couple of days and then rush back home so that we can get back to our busy schedules. Yuck! Of course, the people in these books of mine, who go off to visit people for weeks at a time, are either young or wealthy.

It's harder to leave home for such a long time when you have a house to run, or school or a job to attend each day. Still, I think we could all benefit from slower transportation and longer visits. I hate the way everything these days is rushed and over-complicated. People manage to overthink and not be thoughtful about daily life, at the same time.

(Can you tell that God gave me a mini-revelation this morning about how I've been feeling stress over the DETAILS of the holidays instead of enjoying the SPIRIT of the holidays?)

It's odd to think about Christmas while it's 78 degrees outside, but we went to the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hill Country Galleria tonight. Our primary goal was to support the Veritas Drumline, but there was a pretty awesome fireworks show too. We stood in line (for too long) for a photo with Santa, but the kids eventually decided it wasn't worth it.

As we were walking to the car...

Me: If there's something you want for Christmas, you know who you should really tell, right?
Doug: Your grandparents!