Whole - 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes

The day demanded our attention. All of creation seemed to be saying: Get outside. Revel in this beauty. Feel the wind. Look at the blue skies. See the majestic colors. Go. Breathe. Be inspired.

For late October the weather couldn't have been more perfect. I didn't see a cloud in the sky. The sun didn't stop shining. We took a walk, we played in the leaves, we ran around the dog park with the dog.

The day was ours to experience. Every moment full of joy.

Driving home with the kids in the back seat and the dog in the passenger seat, the windows open, I thought that I could drive all day. For a few moments no one was crying or screaming. The kids laughing with each other. The dog panting quietly on the front seat. The open road ahead of us; the whole day ours to enjoy.

I thought back to the days driving with my dad with no particular destination in mind. Taking whole days to simply drive; driving to be together. Once I had my permit and license my dad would ask if I'd like to go driving with him. We'd take his car on the weekend and drive. He'd direct me where to go. Always backroads. Always places where he remembered one time he'd been and wanted to see again. He called them his shortcuts. More often than not his shortcuts would take much longer. But it didn't matter. We were together.

My dad wasn't the one to stress out about my driving or tell me what to do. Yet every once in a while he'd say quietly, "I'm not going to pay for a speeding ticket."

And that was all I needed to hear.

We'd drive for hours on a Sunday afternoon. The whole afternoon ours. We'd find a local restaurant or ice cream place. We'd see beautiful countrysides and neighborhoods. We'd pass eclectic stores and quaint downtowns. My dad always wanted to listen to talk radio and I always wanted to listen to the pop station. I usually won that battle. We'd pass places he'd visited at some point in his life and he'd tell me a story. He remembered the smallest of details. He remembered dates and people's names.

We weren't living in Cole Camp before my dad died. He never got the chance to see our home, this town, or our children. He would love driving the country roads that surround our home. But I trust he's with us - in the days that seem never-ending and the drives that could go on for hours.

**All month I'll be participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes. Each day I'll take some time (sometimes 5 minutes and sometimes a little more) to sit down and write. It's about the discipline of writing each day. It's about listening to the words from within. It's about letting creativity work in me. I'll share my writing at some point during the day on my blog. Thanks for reading.