4 Hours Left

In the depths of your overworked body, unrerneath your bleeched tee shirt, the one used to protect your fancy shirt from the sweat of your anxiety, do you feel it? Do you look at your overbooked calendar and recognize how close it is? I do. I can feel the pressure being lifted. The stones upon my pressed body being lifted as the minutes tick by. I am not there yet, but I can feel the euphoria of freedom.

There will be plenty to do in the next four days. There will be table and chairs that need to be arranged. There will be cleaning that needs to be done before the knock that warns you of the tidal wave of food and family that will wash through the house. We will clean off the side board, so it can hold way more dessert than anyne will eat. There will be dishes to wash as we're bloated with turkey and pie. The warm soapy water making a nap seem that much more desirable.

I am not stressed by these thing. Nor am I stressed about the normal chores that will take place on the weekend, the march of church respnsabilities or knowing I'll have to prod the kids to do anything productive. These truths have no emotional impact on me right now.

Rationally, I know there are a ton of things for me to be thankful, an attitude we're meant to celebrate this weekend. I have an awesome wife and good kids. I've got a warm home and am not at any risk of missing a meal. I've got a good, stable job, that will pay me for a couple of those days I'm not working. I have a collection if friends and a church family that make my life more rich than I could have ever imagined in my youth. A better me would dwell here, breath in these thoughts and exhale thankfulness.

In this moment, right now, my head is somewhere else.

This is the count down to launch. I'm feeling the anticipation of a knowing I have just one more thing to do before I can walk out the door today. This way too long, in just three days, week is almost over. The five point harness is on. I can feel the rumble of the rocket engines powering up. Mission control is going through the final list. But I can't even think about it.