LONG, LONG ROAD

     We took off driving at 7 in the morning. It was a clear, nice day. Sonny was at the wheel, Roberta sat next to him, and Taka and I - in the back. 
     By the time we came to freeway 101 North, the tension fled. Now we just needed to stay on that road for the next 270 miles or so! And soon some of my favorite country began to move by our windows. 
     We passed through Sonoma. Blue-green hands of the hills

lovingly held the blessed valley. Vineyards with their regular rows of trees covered every cleared patch of land. Soon after the trees crowded around the freeway. All was green, but - a billion different shades of it! Like a lovely song was life in those          woods. Just when the eyes became tired of all the green, a little bush, head to toe covered in small, bright yellow flowers would break the monotony. 
     Hours and hours of asphalt bumping under the wheels of our car. The giants came up to the rim of the road then - redwood cedars offered us a multitude of their prickly branches in a gesture of peace and supplication. "Stop, calm down, breathe and live" - they seemed to say. But when a truck would pass, towing the mutilated bodies of their brothers, the wood would sigh in bitter silence.
     Hours and hours passed. Catnaps in the back seat. Easy conversation. 
     Hanah's graduation was to take place in Arcata, but I could only find us a motel about forty minutes away, in Fortuna. The wood bid goodbye to us long before the tiny cities cluttered on both sides of the road, but, as we began to move toward Arcata, they waved to us again. And suddenly, a space opened on the left and my breath stilled: the silver expanse of the ocean came into view. It lay, lapping lazily at the shore, sparkling quietly, as if it felt secure in any comparison. 
   What love I feel in these majestic creations by our Heavenly Father! What thought towards not only the balance in the nature of our planet, but also creating the sense in us that, we are a part of it, and it's magnificent!