Gold in my Backyard

      A friend recently asked me why I had not blogged in such a long time.  Someone actually noticed!  I was surprised.  Here are the reasons for my negligence:  end of school year busyness, family issues, critical life decision-making and a too-full plate in many, many ways.  Have I been too other-wise focused to see the joy in life?

      The friend that started blogging before I did decided to end her blog after a year of blogging.  She had decided in her blog to make an adventure of discovering the city she lived in after nearly thirty years of hating it.   She wanted to find the beauty and the joy in Cleveland, of all places.  Her beautifully composed blog explored this topic of finding adventure in your own backyard.  She summed up the lessons she had learned and ended her blog by literally saying, “Bye”.

      My blogging topic, on the other hand, is never ending.  Finding joy in life is a life-long journey.  Friend, I thank you for asking, because it reminded me to regain this focus. There are so many things concerning joy to write about. I want to share an experience concerning joy in my own backyard.

      I was picking up two girls at the Columbus airport for church camp. One girl arrived an hour before the other.  After getting some lunch, we had time to kill until the second plane arrived. 

      Columbus tourism is alive and well at the airport.  You can buy just about anything with the word Columbus, Ohio, Buckeyes or Ohio State printed on it. Some items are tasteful, even lovely and some are just tacky and useless.

      I saw the most amazing postcard at one of these airport shops.  It actually dropped my jaw.  It was a photo of a beautiful field of radiant, golden sunflowers that I had longed to see for many years; that I had even looked for in Normandy and Tuscany and did not find.  I had only imagined the beauty of such a sight after reading the novel, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Yet, here was this postcard with the word OHIO on it. The postcard on said the picture was taken in Central Ohio. Yes, it was taken in my own backyard!  Sometimes we do not have to travel very far to find joy, the joy we are looking or longing for.  The postcard even had glitter on it: something gold with glitter!!!