Terracita blonde

when traveling up little elk creek canyon as a child on the gravel road, which is now gone, washed out by the flood of 1972, the dust would choke me. it was always a fight among us boys as to whether rolling the windows down all the way or up all the way was the best option for keeping the dust at bay. I liked the more fresh air option, even if there was a dusty smell at least the air was moving rapidly (well, 25 mph rapidly). the blonde and gray limestone canyon walls high above us were a fascination, a distraction to not being able to breathe well. white gates and red gates, where the canyon walls descended to the road leaving a narrow passage, so narrow that at red gates a house-sized, squarish boulder leaned out overhead and driving beneath it was a thrill we always commented on. those were the days of hands, arms and heads out the window, something i would never dream of allowing my kids to do today for fear of losing part of themselves. and no seatbelts, no fear of a crash, even with the narrow road, loose gravel (cousin steve and i crashed on that road as teenagers by rounding a corner too fast) it was magic, impatience and ecstatic natural appreciation combined, and i can still feel that magic when i walk down the canyon today on my visits back to south dakota.

"One of the many wonderful things Laura taught me is that no mother, not even one who has won “Mother of the Year,” is perfect, but all are called to a deeper relationship with God. We still bring up the story she shared about the year she tossed the Advent wreath out the sliding-glass door because her children would not cooperate with her plans to bring the light of Christ into their home! When the snow cleared in the spring, an exposed wreath peeked out as a reminder of a well-intended but imperfect moment of wanting to better know God. Even exceptional mothers have their bad days! And of course even Christ had some “bad” days. How refreshing to know we don’t have to be perfect: only to yearn for perfection and to seek it through Christ’s love, guidance and example, which had become Laura’s quest." (from Tuesdays with Laura by Roxane B. Salonen)