Exhale

 

This past couple of days could not have come at a better time. 

 

Returning back to work on Monday I feel renewed and refreshed.  Last week was a hard week.  Extremely long hours (just turned in payroll for 160ish hours in 2 weeks), and long times on my feet made my body sore and weak.  A teenage suicide and an arrest of a ten year old then placing him in mental facility was took a toll on my emotions and spirit.  It was just all around a very tough last few weeks. 

 

Waking up on Saturday morning, I was ready.  I was ready to get away.  I was ready to get to a place with no people, no stress, no schedule, no nothing.  I was more than ready to experience a time where I could just sit down and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted without anyone or anything getting in the way.  I needed that.  I needed that time to breathe, to exhale all that I had taken in the week prior.  I had plans.  I knew where we were going and I was ready to go.  We packed up a few clothes, stocked the Snomaster fridge with food and set out toward the Ozarks National Forest.  I stopped in for a minute at Ace Hardware to pick up some Cowboy Lump Charcoal and set out west on Interstate 40 headed toward Clarksville.  Turning north, we then set our coordinates for Oark, AR.

 

Just south of Oark, we found our spot on the Mulberry River.  There has not been much rain this summer and the river is very dry, but there was a little water here and it was flowing, barely, but flowing.   We picked out our spot on the gravel bar, set-up camp, pulled out our chairs, and sat down in a shady spot under the awning.  My wife said she was tired from the past week and wanted to crawl up in the tent and take a nap.  She said she wanted to experience what retirement would someday feel like.  I chuckled and told her while here we have no schedule.  You can do whatever you want to do.  While she snoozed away, an occasional snore brought me back to reality as I sat in my chair, enjoying the peace and tranquility that only a place like this can bring. It was almost as if I were going in and out of consciousness. I began thinking on the week behind, then coming to myself to take in the peace that only a moment to breathe can provide.  That time to exhale is healing. 

 

I truly needed that moment.  I truly needed those two days of just sitting back and letting out all I had taken in.  We need that time.  We need those moments in life.  If not, we would become that balloon that takes in too much air.  We become that scuba diver that just used that last breath of oxygen thirty feet down.  We become that spelunker that just lost batteries in his only headlamp.  We become that weary traveler that just ran out of gas a hundred miles from any convenience store. 

 

I had become that person.  But today, I am good, now that I have had the chance to exhale.