Christmas this year brought a huge surprise. Daulton and Goose sent me to New York. My expenses were paid. I stayed out of the planning. I simply packed my bags and left with Daulton, Shelby, Diana, and Aunt Shannon for eight wonderfully-fabulous-once in a lifetime-event planned days.
We left Friday on the Red Eye flight. What the heck were those girls thinking? Don't they know I NEED my beauty sleep? Daulton was quick to say "You can sleep on the plane." Let me clarify. DAULTON can sleep on the plane. In fact, that girl can sleep anywhere. Anytime. Any place.
We had a small layover in North Carolina and when we lifted off on the second flight, I did sleep. Hard. Drool spilling out of my mouth hard.
Can I simply say that I LOVED New York? Loved it.
We did all the tourist-y stuff. Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island. Rockefeller Plaza. Empire State Building. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Madison Square Garden. (To name a few.) We even napped in Central Park! The icing on the cake? I went to Wicked. On Broadway. Second row. I don't know why I wore make-up. Tears dripped from my cheeks the entire production. The poor guy sitting next to me probably wanted to strangle me. I didn't care. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that couldn't be controlled. So I cried.
Thursday morning found us on the Amtrak headed to Washington D.C. where we completed the last leg of our journey. Arlington cemetery. Washington Memorial. Lincoln Memorial. Korean War Memorial. Vietnam Memorial. (To name a few.)
The sites were overwhelming and humbling and inspiring and honorable and beautiful.
A few months back, my hot water heater blew. Water everywhere. Flood and destruction and a HUGE mess. Mark and I needed help and Daulton was able to come to our rescue. She hauled things out of the basement and helped me de-waterize the mess like a champ.
While we were headed to pick up a new water heater, Mark (ever a gamer) said "Let's play a game. What are the top five moments of your life?" We each pondered, then stated the perfect moments that have been alloted to us.
This trip is now one of mine.
I like to say "You don't truly love someone until you serve them." This is something I wholeheartedly believe and try to emulate.
This disease has put me on the receiving end of service. And it's difficult. Extremely difficult. I need help walking. If something important needs to be said, I rely on other voices to do the talking.
I worried and fretted about how my walking would be on this trip. I hate being the one to slow things down. I meander around here at my house but the last thing I wanted to do was slow the momentum of the touring Deason-Chick clan.
I don't know why I fretted. There was not a single moment that somebody in the group didn't offer their arm for me to hold. I figured out real quick that if I had arms to hold to keep me steady that I could keep my head to the ground and go.
We averaged eight miles a day. We mastered the subway in New York and D.C. All this I accomplished through the help of my girls.
No. I didn't see the city buildings or skyline. I wasn't able to view street names or do any window shopping. I kept my eyes to the ground and held on for dear life. But I did it. And I loved it.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
I was graced. Love was generated to provide this experience to little ol' me and grace was given in the form of helping hands reaching to provide support.
I'll say it again. I'm a lucky girl.
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