The first two weeks at my new job have been awesome.  Well, except for that one incident where I was cleaning up VLANs on the switches in the LAB building and accidentally deleted the management VLAN so I couldn’t get to the switch any longer.  Huh?  What did he just say?  It just means I had to take the walk of shame over to the lab building to fix what I had broken.  Luckily no end-users were harmed during my cranial flatulence.  I was able to fix it quickly and move on.

Yesterday I took my wife up to Lake Tahoe to beat the heat in the Big Valley.  Surprise surprise everyone else had the same idea!  Traffic was thick and there was no roadside parking near any of the beaches.  We got out and took a walk through Incline Village but ultimately gave up trying to make it to the beach.  Instead we jumped back into my trusty minivan and headed back to our favorite secret lake back down in in the Big Valley.

It took us two hours to drive back down there and we made it 45 minutes before the front gate closed.  We were able to park lakeside and get our chairs out and just enjoy the peace and quiet.  There were other campers along the lake but it wasn’t that crowded due to the heat.  Sitting there by the lake holding hands with my wife made the work week, all the traffic, the entire day’s journey to the Sierras and back completely worth it.  We both felt the peace of nature descend on us; the trees, the lake, the turtles, the ducks, all of it.  We spent the time talking, and not-talking.  Sometimes just sitting in silence with the one you love is so very healing and peaceful.

Even though the weekend isn’t over, that is how I will remember the week ending for us; in peace.  I thank God for that peace every day.  I’m thankful for the new job.  I’m thankful for being able to provide for my family (even though it is His provision, not mine).  I’m thankful for my family; all of them.  But I am most thankful for my wife who helps me find this peace.  Life without her would be chaos.