California Dreamin'

California ! What images come to mind when you hear that word? Sun, beach, surfing, palm trees, warm breezes, sunsets, tans? Most consider California to be a postcard, literally, of paradise. Well I have been a resident of California for half of my life now ( I was born and raised in Southern Oregon and we moved to Southern California when I was 15 - and I will be 30 in April.) And I have found something ironic about the paradise we encounter everday.

We hardly ever see it!

Our days begin with waking up early (too early) and making our way to the freeway, fighting other cars full of anxiety and starbucks to get in the lane that will get us to where we have to be sooner. We work all day, maybe not, probably not doing what we really wish we could do and find ourselves yet again on the same freeway going home hoping to catch the magnificent painting of God across the sun-setting sky. Don't get me wrong, when I catch the sight of the full white clouds against the blue sky above me or the full moon lighting my otherwise darkened kitchen before bed, I am joyful and peaceful inside. But what struck me was in all this working to live where it is this beautiful, we rarely get to enjoy the beauty.

Don't get me wrong, people work all over this world, and work hard, probably harder than we do sometimes, I just find it ironic that we work to afford the life to live here and why is that, because somebody put a cost on the beauty and said you had to make this much every month and pay this much for rent. And don't even get me started on mortgages...Who can afford paradise?

I personally want to not forfeit my peace for the price of paradise.

It takes so much time to labor here, we labor to live around things we may not see everday. Oh how I pray God will help me enjoy the beauty of my surroundings.