03.13.14.

We spent four quiet, peaceful days at the top of a mountain this week.

A friend offered us his family’s mountain home and we’ve had this little trip planned for a couple months. David and I didn’t realize how badly we needed a getaway until Monday morning. We were so tired and our heads were spinning with a whole lot of things to process from the last few weeks.

The week was very, very restful. It was over 70 degrees when we arrived Monday afternoon and there was snow today when we left. Bizarre. The four of us slept a lot, talked, read books, watched the Food Network, hiked and explored the North Carolina Arboretum, spent an evening in downtown Asheville, ate delicious food, and found a cute little children’s museum in Hendersonville.

I did a whole lot of journaling. Did I ever tell you I keep a Word document journal? I started in 2010, when I got this laptop. Wow. It’s been almost four years.

One document for each month saved in a “journal” folder with creative titles like: march2014. I used this method to process and chronicle our journey to South Asia and back, the transition home, our dream of starting a church, our first house, and as much of the ins and outs of parenting as I can. Most of my “writing” blog posts are revised journal entries.

Typically over the years I write in it maybe a couple times a week. I’ve noticed however, this past year or so, a dramatic decrease in my journaling. And I learned that there seems to be a direct correlation between how much time I spend surfing the Internet and a general lack of creativity in my life. I don’t write as much. I don’t pursue other hobbies.

So I’m on something of a quest to rediscover my creativity — not for any purpose other than I think we as humans are made to be creative. Oddly enough I think it brings us more real rest than sitting in front of a screen.

It helped me to hear one writer describe Internet/smart phone/TV time as “consuming” versus the “creating” of hobbies or skills. Consuming isn’t bad. But too much of it saps your brains ability to create.

Anyway. This is a long roundabout way to say I steered clear of social media and wrote a whole lot this week and it felt really restful for my soul.

Tonight we are back in our own home (it never gets old, this coming back to our very own house) and we feel ready to face tomorrow. Good night, dear friends!