This is my first post since the "Burden Sabbatical".  We've abandoned our pumpkin coach/RV  in a pasture in Bosque County. My magic slipper is somewhere in a dirty old milk crate along with a dozen other pairs of our shoes dusted with Colorado dirt. It looks ordinary now; like it lacks the potential to climb mountains (or run down stairs at the stroke of midnight). It's yet to be unpacked like the overstuffed bags on my bedroom floor. 

We returned to Texas welcomed by friends and family, sweltering heat, a couple of roach carcasses by the front door, a ridiculous pile of mail and a toilet that hadn't been flushed since June the 7th.  My hair returned to its poofy, swollen evangelist-type state when we crossed the Texas line. Life has regained its familiarity. 

In the midst of getting home and immediately packing the youngest for camp, I'm trying to unpack a month's worth of stuff. More importantly, I'm trying to unpack those big ideas we had up there in paradise; the ones we determined to live out as much as we could while we somewhat get back in the rat race. 

I'm wondering how these things will fit in a house that already has too much stuff. 

Speaking of fitting, I have no idea how I'm going to squeeze in all the appointments and summer cleaning I'm faced with that's usually spread out over a whole summer...things that will now be jammed into a couple of weeks. 

How will I make time?

Cram in the return of tragic news of police shootings, more ISIS attacks and then the personal hardships of close loved ones, that we were somehow shielded from while we were away? 

How will my heart contend? 

Lame pun comes next. 

The Burdens are back and the BURDENS are back.

But this is what matters: We were given the opportunity to escape the noise and the crazy for much of June and July. It was a dream glittered with grace. I can't imagine that we deserved such a gift or that such kindness could ever be repaid. It won't be forgotten. Shampoo, unopened boxes of taco shells and pretty souvenir rocks gathered from the Rio Grande riverbed are still tucked in luggage, but I'm bringing out what I learned and was reminded of on our trip. I'm making garnered knowledge the centerpiece of this here house. 

• Pursue peace and stillness and rest. Grab on to it every chance you get. Treasure it. And then tuck it deep inside. God, in His grace, will keep it there in deep parts when the world returns to its faster wilder spin. 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 

2 Peter 1:2

• In all our days, before we do anything, packing or unpacking, may we fold our hands and take out our concerns, looking for guidance on what to grip and what to let go. May the things we get rid of afford us the time and gratitude to worship greater and to love and serve better . 

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed... 2 Corinthians 9:8

• May we learn patience and trust. 
• May we remember that pumpkin carriages and houses "stuffed with stuff" are built on and run on grace.