Joy And hope are straight ahead

​If you're not careful, you can find yourself looking to your past for your best days. Maybe you'll find some good memories there, but when those memories begin looking better than today - and tomorrow - that's where you'll live.

You'll live in yesterday; you won't be able to resist the temptation of going there. And that's when true hopelessness begins to settle in.

I've been there. But this weekend I visited a place that was filled with hope. This weekend my eyes were pointed straight ahead, no looking over my shoulder.

Friday night, my boys and I were riding one of the tallest roller coasters in the world. It was dark. But even still, at the very top of that ride, you could see the moon reflecting off Lake Erie. You could see all the tall roller coasters around the park lit up like an enchanted village.

It was magic. Christmas-like magic.

It was hope.

Then the ride dropped us out of the magic and into the dark night. We raced through it, seemingly out of control. But in that out of control moment, life felt like it had more direction than it had had in a long time.

Maybe it was the screams in the seat in front of me. My boys loving every out of control moment. Their joy, an expression of hope in that moment and in their futures, not an echo from the past that could never measure up to right then and right there.

We got off the ride and Ian said, that was so worth the 8-hour drive. (I kindly reminded him that for him it was more 'ride' than 'drive' - but I got his point).

It wasn't lost on me that we had to drive a long way from home to find the joy. We had to put a lot of distance between where we'd been and where we arrived to find it. But sometimes that's what we have to do, leave where we've been and get moving to where we're going.

Sometimes where we've been is our enemy. It's like a minefield, always a risky visit. So we bravely climb 310 feet above it, into the night sky, and drop into the sounds of pure joy. A joy you'll rarely hear desperately clinging to yesterday.

There is no better joy than right now joy, but we can get too lost in yesterday to discover it.

​(Re-written from 2021)