Enjoy the Journey

There is a main road that runs more or less right through the centre of our town. It keeps all the through traffic away from the houses, businesses, etc.
The A442, or Queensway, or Eastern Primary or EP, depending on who you're talking to.

Thousands of cars, vans and other vehicles drive up and down there every day. I drive up or down there a number of times a week, at least for part of it's length. One , long road that gets you from A to B really quickly, keeps you away from junctions, traffic light or anything else that might slow you down. And we all get so focussed on our destinations we are oblivious to what is around us.
From that photo above you might think that well, there isn't that much to look at, so why would you want to be looking at the things you are passing. But there is, oh please believe me that there is.

Quite a few sections of this road run between hills that still have trees and nature as it always was.
And just lately we have been seeing a bird of prey sitting on the top of one of those T shaped lampposts you can see in the photo. I have no idea what type of bird of prey it is as I can't get a photo because this is not a road you can stop on easily or safely, but I know that he is there, and I spot him MOST times I travel up that stretch of the road.

One day we were really blessed to see 3 of them in a short stretch of the road and one of them actually swooping across the road to land on the lamppost. Another day I spotted him sat on the same lamppost as a magpie, unusual because the other birds won't usually go anywhere near them. This magpie was sat at one end of the arms of the lamppost and the bird of prey was sat about half way along the other arm. Normally I see him sat square on the lamppost facing along the road one way or the other. But this day he was sat at an angle, almost as if he was eyeing up the magpie and wondering if he would make a nice lunch. It made me smile.

There are so many people using this road every single day and the vast majority of them don't even know these birds of prey are there. They've never "seen" them. And that makes me so sad. We have become so focussed on our destinations, so focussed on getting to where we want to be that we have forgotten to look around ourselves and enjoy the journey.

Bewildered Deliverer,
What is this "emptiness" you are feeling? I will tell you. You are in transition. In the midst of change there is no choice but to move. In the process of movement, settling in is out of the question. So, of course you feel rootless! A tree being transplanted cannot be rooted until it is planted again in good soil.

Ponder this truth and remember it - there is no way to enjoy the comforts of home and move at the same time. And it is impossible to harvest fruit from a vineyard yet to be.

I know it has seemed like a long journey, but it will be shorter if you keep this in mind: you aren't supposed to feel satisfied where you are. This isn't home. This is travel.

Meantime, why not enjoy the scenery? You will never pass this way again and one day you will cherish the memories of thsi trip, if you will take note of them now. otherwise, you might arrive at point "B" with no stories to tell!

Helpfully,
Dad

from "From the Father's Heart" by Charles Slagle, published by Destiny's Image.