Had to drive down to the city yesterday for supplies from the health food store. I hate going down there, it’s too hot in the summer and the drivers are insane. It is hard to understand why driving straight down the road at the speed limit while trying to obey the traffic laws regarding lane changes and stop lights enrages some people so. Finally after enduring two hours of people cutting in front of me three inches from my front bumper, horn honking and middle fingers I was headed back up the pass to my oasis in the mountains.
Of course that is not the end of it as there are still a bunch of city people armed with a new pay check headed for Cripple Creek in a great hurry to squander it and return back to the city with nothing to show for it. The lower part of Ute Pass through the canyon is quite curvy and everyone wants to make sure they are the first into and out of the curves. I just hang back in my truck hoping to make it through without some maniac running me off the road. About half way to Woodland Park Highway 24 leaves the canyon on it’s way to the top of Ute Pass. The traffic thins out there and and I always breath a sigh of relief as my muscles relax and the feeling of peace comes over me that only comes with being on top of a mountain. Yesterday I was reminded at that moment of my years in the city longing for a job elsewhere that would take me to the mountains and away from the stress. Four years have passed since I said goodbye to the hustle and bustle and the mountains have become my new norm. As I relaxed and crested the pass I wondered if the people in the city are that tense all the time. I think it would have to shorten your life span to be that uptight all the time.
But then I was reminded that stress isn’t limited to people in the city. There are other kinds of stress like what we have endured fighting Tricia’s cancer. I’m glad we didn’t have to endure the stress of city life and the stress of cancer simultaneously which led me to my thought on patience that I am actually getting to in this post. Four years of watching her slowly deteriorate has taken its toll on my faith and as I drove up the pass I wondered if I was losing my faith. After thinking about it for a bit I realized my faith has not faltered, only my patience. I realized that patience is what helped me endure and escape the city, a lot of years of patience. I wonder how many people confuse faith with patience and give up on God because of it? I will endeavor to keep both and patience and faith together will prevail and we will endure the cancer too.
