I have a dear friend (I have so very few of the 'dear ones') who is teaching down in Auckland, New Zealand. He will be there until this next Monday. He says its beautiful. The town is great and the New Zealanders love Americans. I wanna go. Why? I wanna go to Colorado. Not just to visit but to live. I want to go to the Caribbean; or South Miami Beach is even appealing as long as I don't have to wear a thong-well, okay, I'll try it--again.
Now, if you know me, have hung out with me, spent any time with me, or even been to my home or some how got my phone number, you are saying to yourself and whoever is around you right now, "Williams, ya daft longshoreman, what are you talking about? You live in the same house you buried your parents in (point of clarification-they're not exactly buried here. They did leave here to meet the Lord. This is their last known address. You get what I'm saying)."
Well, that's true. But I bet I'm not alone in this conversation. I bet some of you out there are saying the same thing. "Let's move honey. Come on, it'll be fun packing all those boxes and getting passports." No, it won't happen. Crap. I'm stuck.
Look, I got family here. I have a grandchild here. I have another grandchild coming. I have two dogs who, as we write, are laying on my feet, causing them to go numb. I ain't shoveling snow to get out of the driveway. That's one drawback Colorado has. The town we love gets 270+ inches every year-in town. That's almost 24 feet. That's a lot of shoveling. I'd have to put booties on the dogs feet to go out and go pee. And that town is the closest to family. Auckland-well-I've only seen pictures and heard testimony. I think I would rather move to Whistler, Canada. I love the Canadians. Why? They're Americans-lite. South Miami has the whole thong issue which would disqualify it alone without the idea of a class five hurricane waking me up in the morning. Imagine waking up one morning and the beach was actually IN your living room? I hate sand so that wouldn't work. The Caribbean? I think I would drink too much. I don't drink now except when I'm with my two friends who are pastors so I would be found on some beach by an old couple down from Wisconsin walking along, looking for shells.
As I am writing this, I am looking out my back window and looking over the yard. I like my back yard. It has roses in it and a path made out of stones that I put in years ago as a path around the yard. It needs work but that's okay. It keeps me busy and away from the track, betting on the ponies. The colors from the sun really give it some pretty colors. You don't see the colors like this at any other time of day.
I do want to go to Auckland. I want to go to the northern coast of Australia and its jungle; I want to go Fiji and run naked--somewhere. I heard they run naked in Fiji. I want to go to the Caribbean. I want to go to Austria and drink beer; one of those big half-gallon beers in one of those big glass steins. I want to go to Scotland and see where my grandfather lived and tour the scotch distilleries.
I think looking around is fine. I really do. I also think that looking around causes us to look right back to where we are with fresh eyes. God puts us where we are for a reason. We can find contentment where ever we are if we just give it a chance. It doesn't mean we don't need to better ourselves or get our big old butts off the couch and out of harmful environments. But it does allow us to rest and enjoy where we are. I remember a story where Paul, the guy who wrote a good chunk of the New Testament, was in prison, chained up, and singing. SINGING! Now, I don't think he had picked this as a travel destination, but he knew, somehow, that he was where he was suppose to be. We can go and visit the grass on the other side of the fence. But if we stay, eventually, we will be expected to mow it. Then its our grass.
No, I think I'll stay. After all, it takes some people with some backbone to live in Phoenix-in the summer time which, of course, starts in late winter and goes to late fall. You won't find any French here in the summer. The heat kills 'em back like a weed. But we can travel. We can go see those things we want to see and then come back. Life allows us to to do that. We'll try to hit all those spots. That's all. I think I could be done then after completing that travel list, especially after the Glenlivet's distillery.
Oh, yeah, Miami one more time-to wear the thong. Hey, don't knock it until you try it.
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