Sunday Night With John: Muddy Waters

Life has a way of muddying the waters. Days string together. Events happen in ways that cause us to end up confused and make us lose our focus on the important things in life. If we stay in muddy waters long enough, we might swim to a place where we have no intention of ever ending up. Recently, my waters were muddy and I was facing a trip to Kansas City for the weekend.  If I were placed on truth serum, I'd have to admit that the idea of going on another road trip, when I had a huge paper due for grad school, was not my ideal way of spending a weekend. I dragged my feet all week long and couldn't get excited about going with my wife to attend a wedding. By Friday, my attitude toward the wedding had changed. I was so stressed and frustrated with life, that I flipped from not wanting to go, to feeling that this trip would be a nice excuse to procrastinate in writing my research paper. 

We packed up Saturday morning and headed for Des Moines where we met up with my in-laws so we could finish the drive together. I began to study my assigned reading for class that week.  However, the conversation taking place in the car soon proved to be too enticing to ignore. I found that the leaked tape from one presidential candidate and the chaos from the upcoming election provided great conversational fodder and laughter. We kept refreshing the internet browsers on our phones to see if there was any more fallout from the tape. The muddy waters began to clear as I laughed. 

As we dressed in our fancy duds to attend the wedding, I was once again reminded that I had married a beautiful woman. We headed to a wonderful church and watched two great people express their love for each other. Next, we stopped at a restaurant near the location for the reception. I was introduced to a new food item, deep fried deviled eggs, and my stomach had never been so happy. The waters cleared up a little more. 

The reception was fun. I caught up with some friends and was able to see where everyone was in life. The music began and my wife and I waited to start cutting a rug until the right song played.  The DJ played the Bruno Mars song, "Uptown Funk," and, when we heard its fun beat, we found our way to the dance floor. We started moving our feet and spinning our way as we dusted off our favorite move, the pretzel. As we danced to another song, I was spinning my wife and when she twirled back around to face me, a giant smile lit up her beautiful face. It was the smile I fell in love with five years ago, the smile that reminds me how good I have it, the smile that motivates me to be a better person. My wife and I danced to five or six more songs and I cannot remember the name of any of them. No matter what they were, the only song playing in my head was, "I Can See Clearly Now".

As we danced and laughed the night away, life came back in focus. We all lose our way from time to time. We let the stuff in life that doesn’t matter grow and grow until we push out the stuff that does. A time away, celebrating love with family and friends, was just what this weary man needed. No more muddy waters. I realized that it is such a wonderful feeling when you become grounded in everything great about your life. My weekend trip made the waters crystal clear.