Variety of terrain and random thoughts.

Today I got to enjoy a long drive through farmland, rainforest, desert, pine forest, high mountains and low valleys. All in a 300 mile area in Washington and Oregon. Each place has its own beauty and there is a great peacefulness in desert that I truly did not appreciate until moving here. Sometimes it is nice to get out where there are no people and no cell service and just hear yourself think. It is easy to see God's hand in the desert. It is easy to put aside the stressors of life and just ponder. Overall this was a good weekend though intense at times. I thought of many things. Things like a mother getting older. Her dog and how old he seems. How sad. How he looks like an old person now. How nothing is forever. Yet I realize I must enjoy things and be happy for the moment. The present is all that is. There is hope for the future and lessons of the past but the present moment is where its at. In that way, I agree with Buddhist philosophy. What is really scary is since I have developed the live in the present moment philosophy, I am noticing how much other people worry more than me. Anyone who knows me knows I worry too much but I have become the calm voice of reason. At least with my wife and mother.