As I write this, I have a picture perfect view of the lake with its surface shimmering like a girl showing off her diamond ring in the sunlight. The gentle breeze is cascading in waves through my open window as I am serenaded by the birds and wind harmonizing in the trees. 
This is one of my favorite places on earth.
Some might call it a “happy place”, but I’d choose “my slice of heaven”.
It’s hard to trade the serenity and lazy bliss of meandering July days at the lake for the sterile, mechanical feel of the keyboard under my fingers. But this unplanned “sabbatical” from writing has gone on way too long. What started out as a break to rejuvenate has turned into 3 months!
I am shocked.
I think I just collapsed under the oppressive wall of productivity and have stayed trapped in the rubble trying to dig my way out. The thought of forming a creative thought, much less a full entry was paralyzing. After writing this blog regularly for almost 3 years (check out my first entry – 2008) my creative juices were just plain dry.
I like to write from inspiration, not obligation. And so I waited.
And the longer I waited the harder it became to just start typing.
As I sit pecking away at the keyboard, attempting to dust off the part of my brain that forms words into coherent sentences, I’m fighting the urge to plant myself on a brightly colored plastic raft in the sunlight on that gorgeous lake out there and float the day away.
But although I took a break from writing, I sure didn’t take a break from life.
The last 3 months, I’ve focused on my family, friends and the bountiful blessings in my life. And to do that fully, sometimes we need to disengage from other things that occupy our time. I think that’s why the writing was on the back burner.
To list of all I’ve experienced in these months would undermine the enormity of my blessings.
But I will tell you I have been unabashedly reveling in the joy and blessings of a healthy family, the privilege of hosting family and friends in a variety of settings and circumstances, serving God through mission work and attempting to live each day with the perspective of its temporariness.
Our treasure is in Heaven.
But I am certain God has blessed me with my own sneak preview here on Earth. And I’m savoring every delicious moment of it.
Are you savoring your daily blessings?