So, the second night we were in Tiberias, I took my Bible and journal down to the terrace by the seashore and did some journaling. I eventually realized that a group of folks from our tour group were sitting under a gazebo, just kind of chatting. My roomie had turned in early, and I wasn't quite ready to head up for sleep. But...could I just, you know, walk over and join them? The social awkwardness that I am prone to kicked in. Most of them were young enough to be my kids. I'm honest, I struggled. Would I be intruding? Finally, I just picked up my stuff, headed over slowly and asked, 'Hey, is it ok if I hang out too?' The response was welcoming, so I sat down and just kind of chilled, listening as they talked about TV shows and podcasts and things that I was totally unfamiliar with. But it was cool, just being part of the group. About 9:30, the jet lag slammed me and I said my goodnights, hoping to make it all the way up to my room before falling asleep.
My roomie was asleep when I slipped into our room; she'd left bathroom light on, which was just enough to see to maneuver around. I did my get-ready-for-bed routine as quietly as I could, and, just before I turned out the bathroom light I realized I didn't have my glasses to hand. I looked on the night stand, which was where they should have been...no glasses. I looked in the bathroom, thinking I'd left them there when I put on the face cream...no...I looked around at the other horizontal spaces..the desk, the dresser...no sign of them. Suddenly I wondered if I had left them outside on the table, since I would have pulled them off to read/write as the ol' over-40-nearsightedness thing means I can't read with them on. I thought hard...had the faces of the folks been in focus when I was sitting in the gazebo? If they were, I would have had my glasses on then and worn them upstairs. I thought they were, but...honestly, I wasn't sure. The light was not good.
But I wasn't about to go downstairs in my jammies, and I was planning to be down on the terrace early to take sunrise pictures. I didn't think it likely for anyone else to wander around that corner of the terrace before breakfast, so I figured if they were there I could get them then. But I was bothered.
I woke up just before dawn, got dressed quietly and slipped downstairs with no vision correction, lol. The sun wasn't up yet and I wandered over to the table I'd sat at the night before. No glasses. Now I was annoyed. But the dawn was coming, so I hung out and took some pictures, figuring my eyes didn't have to focus for the camera to do so...and it was a very pretty sunrise.
When my roommate got up, I laughed and told her what had happened. She laughed with me and said, 'I think your word for today is 'Distraction!'
We had to have our bags outside our door before we went to breakfast, so we were packing up and getting ready to put them out...and I reached into my backpack pocket and grabbed a card for the day's word.
'DISTRACTION' was what was written on the card. Now I laughed, because I didn't remember writing that one down. But it was certainly on point. Misplacing my glasses had certainly had me distracted that morning.
But there was more to come...we went downstairs for breakfast and I was shocked to see that fog had rolled in after such a pretty sunrise. We couldn't see the other side...we could barely see the water on this side.
Fog has to be burned away by the SON is what I perceived. And grabbed my disposable camera and got a pic of the mist.
I chewed on that for a while; I tend to beat myself up for being distracted. Getting to the end of a day and not accomplishing what I intended to accomplish. Maybe...just maybe...the distractions aren't my fault (at least, not all of them). Like my glasses...the jet lag had caught up and I was, literally, barely functional. It's no wonder I wasn't paying attention to when I took them off or where I put them. Ordinarily the shirt would have gone into the dirty clothes bag instead of being left on the foot of the bed. And I hadn't even noticed it there the night before. The physical exhaustion had been a distraction that kept me from even realizing I wasn't using due diligence in my night time routine.
So one distraction led to another distraction.
I heard more on distraction that day...we went to the Dead Sea and the whole setup was a distraction to me that kept me from enjoying what many folks consider a highlight of the trip. We did a jeep ride in the desert; my expectations were a distraction that nearly kept me from going. Hey, growing up in rural Indiana, Jeep riding (also called 'mudding' or '4 wheeling') was for the thrill of risk taking...up and down over hills, rocks, creeks, whatever could be found to push the limits of 4 wheel drive. So I had some preconceived notions as I looked at the desert through the tour bus windows and noticed Jeep tracks up and down some of the hills. I am not into thrill seeking and quailed at the thought of riding a Jeep on those trails. But this excursion wasn't for the thrill of the ride...the Jeeps were to get us to overlooks; viewpoints at the tops of hills that no roads went to. The views were breathtaking.
And...one more thing to prove God has a sense of humor: I had commented to someone that people go to Israel to find historical Jesus. But I had been doing some writing based on Genesis, and I also was going to the desert to find Abraham.
Well, the lead Jeep driver talked to us at the best overlook, describing life in the desert.
I kid you not, his name was... Abraham.
And I almost let the distraction of my preconceived notions cause me to miss the moment. I'm so glad I felt compelled to ignore the distraction of my fearful self and go.
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