Today my hair was a mess. 

I smelled of campfire, and everything is full of sand. 


There is a hole in my jeans from the hook on a fishing line. 


I road in the back seat of our old pickup truck the whole trip with two of my boys, because the teenager’s legs can’t cram in the back any longer. It was reminiscent of my childhood driving hours with four kids crammed into a Toyota Corolla, which later became my first car. 

I watched my husband try to fish, but spend most of his time untangling hooks, and rods. 

We climbed rocks and I did my best not to say “Be careful” too much. 


And my hair was tangled the whole time. 

And it was okay. 

Because I watched my children live…fishing off the dock, fishing in the dusk, laughing in a fort in the sand. We ate scoops of melting ice cream in cones, and I let them wipe off their chins with their sweatshirts– that were covered in sand and summer. 

We were away. 

Away…from the painful pieces of growing up. The past year I’ve seen a lot of growth in my family, and many of it has been the hard kind. I keep trusting God with it all. But it is hard stuff. 

It can all be so Rocky. And sometimes the sand gets in everything. 

And so we needed it…this time. Time away to do the messy good stuff, over the busy life stuff. 

I’ve been trying lately to embrace the experience of living part over the just getting through each day part. I’ve been spending more time looking for all the beautiful over all the things that make me anxious. 

It’s a powerful shift. 

And a good one. 

 I’m still a mess. 

I will never have it all together.

But the tangles are bringing my family closer to each other. And our faith is a constant in the messy. And God continues to draw us closer to Him and bring people into our lives who get us. And love us. And we love each other and I’m realizing what a gift that is. 

Embrace the experience. Love the mess. Live. 

to God be the Glory.