Run, Lola, Run!!

Last week Dan and I were invited by one of our neighbors to go camping for a couple of days.  Well anyone who knows me knows I'm not the ourtdoorsy type!!  When I posted it to Facebook even my grandaughter commented in shock!  I too was shocked that it was so appealing to me at the time.  That should have been my first clue that God had a hand in it I'm sure!!

I got so wrapped up in meal planning and prep cooking and shopping.........OMG shopping!! I was having just too too much fun and it did puzzle me at the time but I kind of blew it off and I thought what made it appealing to me was that we were not going that far from home, just up the road to Morro Bay.......and I LOVE Morro Bay!  Brenda  had a long time friend joining us for the trip and I had heard so much about this lady that I was excited to meet her.

Now you have to understand that both these ladies are educated, well adjusted professional women in their fields of work and I should have felt a little intimidated but because I have over the past six years became such good friends with my neighbor that the thought never crossed my mind!  So off to Morro Bay we go in our little RV and get to the campground on the beach and the weather was so beautiful and all was great! Later in the afternoon her friend arrived and Oh My Goodness she was such an interesting lady.  She had been around the world in her travels and did so many interesting things and it came up that her and Dan had both been to Micronesia which is the most unlikely place that two strangers would have in common.......places like Truck, Yap, Guam and a fistful of other places including Saipan where Dans family lived for two years.  The conversation went on for hours and I sat there totally facinated by all I was listening to and then DINNER!! Goodness dinner was great!!  We bbq'd shrimp and had an asian noodle salad and my neighbor made a great tomatillo salsa and i had made a shrimp cocktail and it got cold but the fire was great........

As we waited for her arrival other campers were setting up around us......I got to see so many new fangled camping things that I want to shop for........lol A solar lantern that Brenda had that you blow up like a mini beach ball.....her friend had a solar shower........a big bag you fill with water and lay on the hood of the car to heat up with a shower hose attached to one end of it.....I got to see her wash her hair!! The folks next to us had this zip up screen enclosure that enclosed the whole picnic table.....I definitely have to have one of those for the bugs although there were none there that night.

Somewhere along the evening Vickie told us about her son, an only child, who is a young adult and as a lot of young adults nowadays feels entitled to a life he envsioned......lol  She told us how he had received a large inherritance from one of his grandfathers and how he had gone thru it in a short six months. How he still lives at home with her and is not employed and not in school.  Sometime the next day he came up in the conversation again and as I sat there listening to her go on about him it occurred to me how lucky she was to see him each day and to know he was eating and that he was well and could say good morning to him everyday if she wanted to.......I realized  she had never thought of the alternative.  It made me sad and I tried to keep my two cents to myself but all of a sudden I blurted out........"Vickie can I tell you a story?"  I began to tell her that I have not seen either of my sons for almost thirty years......Her and Brenda looked at me in shock, although Brenda was aware of the fact.  I half assed explained to her why and I told her ......"so next time  you get upset with him, remember that you see him everyday, you never need to wonder if hes eating or has a roof over his head or if he's even alive!"  And it began to click in my little brain why God had made me so excited to go CAMPING!!  Just a couple of hours later she made a smart assed comment about him  and then quickly looked at me and said......."but I know where he is!!!" Amen to that......

I felt good........very good, in fact, that I had been able to share that with her and to know that forever more with every derogatory thought she had about her unappreciative son, she would also think about the fact that she knew WHERE he was and HOW he was!!  About mid afternoon the next day  Brenda got a text from another very good friend of hers that was teaching a class at Cuesta College and she was gonna come by the campsite before going home just to chit chat!!  I got to meet Julie......!!  Ten minutes out of the car and I hear her telling Brenda about her 18 yr old daughter who left home to move in with her boyfriend of 28 and his entire family.  They're foreign but Im not sure exactly from where but she was devastated!! Now here was another (although married) strong, educated, professional woman who felt she had a lot of control and now reali ing that the control was slipping out of her grasp.  I listened because I didn't know her and again I find myself in the middle of the conversation and this time its, "Julie can I tell you a story?" Oh my goodness my Portuguese blood was running full strength that day!!! 

I proceeded to tell her about my oldest daughter and how controlling I had been and how my sentence for all this was her moving to Utah and then to Oregon and me not seeing or talking to her or my three grandkids for 18 years!!  She told me how these people were not good and I held my hand up to her and I said........"Julie, it doesn't matter.......shes 18! The law says she can do what she wants and you have no say.  And the harder you pull her back to you......the faster she will go in the opposite direction!"  To say the least it was two days that I will not soon forget that my sadness and pain may save someone else from a lifetime of both. Julie stayed and had dinner with us and we bbq'd again, this time shishkabob and veggies and Brenda made a great salad and the conversation was enriching to everyone I think.  Julie even brought a fistful of rocks and had us all painting rocks......lol EVEN ME!! I'm sitting here now looking across the deck at my rock I painted in the geranium pot on the porch.......lol  Before Julie left she hugged me so tight and I told her......we want to protect them but some lessons they have to learn on their own honey!! Give her some space at least she's still speaking to you!!!

So YES, God does work in mysterious ways!!! He showed me that I can CAMP..........haha  And my pain is a tool that maybe I can share with folks to make them see before its too late what they had not considered yet.  The consequences are not always worth the energy we expend trying to make our results be THE result!!!  I left camp feeling good........good about learning to camp, good about meeting strong educated independent and professional women I was neither intimidated by or afraid of and good that I could share my heartbreak and maybe spare someone else the same heartbreak in the future!!  Thank you Lord for holding onto me always!! Amen!!