Sandcastles and Daydreams I remember waking up with drool on my chin and lawn chair lines on my cheek. As I stirred myself back to life, the earbuds that were practically melted into my ears clumsily dropped out, but I could still hear the same song playing that had lulled me to sleep. A quick glance up and down the powdery white beach of Longboat Key revealed no girlfriend sitting beside me as she had been when I drifted off. The aqua blue waves were darkened a bit by the lowering afternoon sun and the sound of busy seagulls filled the air. I gathered myself together, stretched my arms up and my toes down, then rolled off the beach chair and headed toward the cottage hiding under the Banyan trees behind me. I could smell food cooking as I approached the rickety screen door and could see my friend happily humming and working in the tiny kitchen. The squeaky door warned her of my intrusion. “There you are, sleepy head,” she said. “I was just about to come after you. Dinner is ready.” My friend had prepared a fresh fried fish, shrimp, and hushpuppy dinner for me along with her world-class chopped salad and a big glass of sweet tea. Oh my, I was overwhelmed. It was precious. “Why didn’t you wake me up to help with dinner?” I asked. “You needed to rest, Pat! You are wiped out and you cannot keep up this pace,” she responded in no uncertain terms. As we sat down to dinner, my friend continued her soft but no-holding-back declaration about my burned-out condition and began to warn me, not for the first time, about how I needed to find time for rest and restoration in order to keep going. “My life has always been lived in the fast lane. Always. I basically jumped over high school straight into college after dropping out as a junior, getting married, having a baby, and getting divorced all in less than two years ” Pat Layton “I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”” ~Psalm 139:18 NLT WWW.PRO.LIFE | 1 (800) 858-3040 | 919 S. MAIN ST, SNOWFLAKE, AZ 85937 92
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