The Skies Above, The World Below

Call me weird, but I love the skies. I love to see the clouds move across them. I love to see them illuminated by light in front of them or behind them. I am entranced with the sun and moon and stars. I revel in sunsets and sunrises (the few I actually get my butt out of bed for, anyway). To me, the drama of the skies is a regular reminder of 1) how small I am, 2) how great God is and 3) that I'm really not putting my best effort into being the finest human being I can be. It humbles me!

My kids sometimes tease me because when I come back from my travels, if I've even remembered to take any photos at all, usually what I have is a bunch of pictures of the skies. This last weekend, I traveled to the Home Instead Senior Care leadership conference, where the Home Instead Senior Care Foundation has it's annual in-person board meeting. It was in the Cayman Islands, on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. There, the skies were beautiful, the weather perfect, and the company outstanding. The owners of the company wanted to go someplace special this year because it was their 15th anniversary of starting the company, and they were offered a fantastic deal to take their large group to the Ritz Carlton. I never in my life thought that I would be staying at a Ritz Carlton, but there I was, hanging out in a place where everyone knew my name and my every request was handled quickly and with extreme professionalism.

Here's an image of the hotel, with a beautiful blue sky and some fast moving clouds as a backdrop. The Cayman Islands have workers from all over the world. Esther, the woman who did my nails, was from Nairobi, 25 years old and an expert in making guests at the Ritz feel and look beautiful. She has 4 siblings and her parents who all live in Nairobi. She can only work on this island for 7 years before she must go back for at least a year. She noted that there were people from Africa, Asia, Europe, the United States and many other places working at the Ritz.

While I was there, the moon was showing off, shining 30% brighter than at any other time according to what I heard on the telly (that's what they call the television there). It looked so huge up in the sky. See, it's not just the daytime skies that attract my attention....I love the night skies, too. I was really in awe of it. I tried to take some pictures of it with my camera. When I used flash, the picture didn't turn out well, so I tried to take a picture without flash. The picture you see here is grainy, and there was a nice effect caused by something on my lens, I guess. Proof that I need to really figure out how to take decent pictures with my camera at some point!

While I was in the Grand Cayman, I was able to see some very good friends of mine from my Home Instead days. It was great to see the people from the corporate office, who all feel like family to me, as well as my friends who are former or present owners of franchises. We were talking about our blessings and the various things that challenge us. It's amazing how these individuals have helped me through my life and continue to be such an inspiration to me. They are dear to my heart, just like Home Instead will always be.

On the last day before I left, I was treated to an

especially beautiful sunset. I think God was having a particularly good day that day!

I was sad to leave my little getaway, but very glad after 16 hours of travel that I was able to get back to see my children. I always miss them when we are apart. When we are driving or traveling together, I always point out the skies to them, and we discuss what it will be like to have the world be perfected someday. We just can't imagine how it could be more beautiful than it already is. But then, we can't imagine the richness of the blessings God has in store for us if we just keep our eyes looking upward. I need to have my focus directed upward a bit more often, I think. Love you all out there!!!!!!