Today I took the first scenic road trip I’ve taken alone in perhaps 25 years. Since before Florida, Mark and the children, law school and Montana (the first time), Texas (the second time), Colorado, and Washington (the third time). It was the long road home through the Kootenai forest on the first and longest day of summer. I stopped to explore and take pictures every few miles. I took in the mountains and rivers, lakes and trees, cliffs and waterfalls, deer, wildflowers, and antique stores. I breathed. I listened to Canadian radio out of Creston, BC, and sang at the top of my lungs. I thought only of the beauty around me and the road before me and nothing of the heartaches and disappointments of the past. It was like going through an emotional car wash. I came out able to see through the windshield again.

Nothing was more beautiful than driving into home at the pink of dusk and being greeted by two joyful dogs, a peaceful cat under the piano, a husband in the kitchen with a card waiting and onion soup on the stove, and two rocking chairs on the porch that he put there while I was gone. I don’t know what joys and heartaches are around the corner and down the road from here, but this day was perfect. Sometimes all you need to go on is just one perfect day.