The Brief Holiday

Have you ever had perfect plans changed by happenstance? (Happenstance being a romantic sounding word for God's will of course)
Last Wednesday afternoon I was driving down Carson street in Long Beach. It was a warm, clammy Southern California summer day around 3 pm. My kids were with me, the radio was playing an old rock classic from my younger days and, as we puttered along in our non-air conditioned little car, a seed began to germinate in my brain.
It might have been the hothouse atmosphere in the car;it could have been the hormonal imbalance in the blood coursing through my 51-year old veins. It was probably the devil himself.
Whatever caused the sprouting of this plan, it sure seemed like a fantastic idea at the time,
My daughter was talking to me about something, I'm not sure what, but I know it was some sort of problem she wanted me to fix. As she talked, I found that her words began to grow fainter and fainter, as if each syllable were being snatched by the July air breezing through the car windows. As her voice and the classic rock music faded into the background, I found myself in another place and time-Thursday morning.
In my mind's eye, I saw the calm sprawl of the California coastline. Cool, wet, salty and inviting. As my daughters inflections became more tense, the landscape in my head changed. Now, I was on that beach. I was strolling along barefoot, talking to the Lord, as the foam of the breaking waves tickled my toes. (My brain had mercy on me, I wasn't wearing a swimsuit. It was more like a carefree, loose-fitting sundress.) The seed had taken hold and was growing at a speedy pace-like those time-lapse pictures you see on the Home and Garden channel.
"Tomorrow is Thursday," I thought to myself. "After I drop Jeffrey off at work, I'm going to the beach." The die was cast. As we pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot, my only care on this earth was what sandy paradise I would hit and what color sundress would I buy? And then it happened. My cell phone rang.
It was my beloved and he was very upset. His job (and mine for that matter) were in serious jeopardy. He was going to take Thursday off to calm down and gather his thoughts.
As quickly as the idea of my AM reprieve had bloomed, it was now gone-weed-whacked away right at the head! I wiped the ocean spray from my face and settled back into reality. "Boy it's hot," my daughter said. "So, what do you think Mom?"
Later, that night, as we were winding down, the family gathered to watch a DVD episode of the old sitcom. "Father Knows Best." The title of this particular episode was "Brief Holiday.." As we watched the story unfold, I could almost hear the Lord snickering. The mother in the story, Margaret Anderson, after getting her family off to work and school, began her morning chores. Suddenly, she began to think about all her family expected and required from her. A neighbor dropped in and Margaret shared her woes with the woman. As her friend listened incredulously, Margaret spoke of a "brief holiday" she wanted to take to a place outside of town called "Orleans Street" (the equivalent of Bolsa Chica, I guess.) "I'd love to drive over there and buy something frivolous," Margaret declared, "like a silly, expensive hat" (the equivalent of a carefree, loose-fitting sundress.)
To cut to the chase, Margaret took her "brief holiday." She bought her hat -it was way cute. A street vendor persuaded her to allow him to sketch her portrait. As he commented on her beauty, Margaret glanced down at her watch and noticed the time. (the equivalent of a "Pirates" ringtone)
Margaret, like me, was startled back into reality.
The next day,as my hubby pondered our future, I shared my ill-fated shoreline fantasy with him and the irony of the timing of the Father Knows Best episode.
"You could've gone," he said. "No," I replied wistfully. "It's no fun if it's not a secret. It wasn't the Lord's will for me to go. He wanted me here."

"Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." James 4:13-15