Murphys

I got to go to Murphys yesterday.  I didn't take my camera because I knew the trip was about relationship and not the relationship between my camera and me! But, ohhhh, I was taking pictures all day! Those little ones in my mind and heart with the teeny tiny, pretend lenses in my eyes. :) Such beauty at this time of year.  The weather was perfect and everything fall.  I saw the splendor of autumn colors, beautiful rows of spent grapevines with wispy vines reaching toward one another between the rows.  I saw cool, rustic metal and old presses. I saw beautifully aged older men, with smile lines pressed into their wrinkled faces and well-worn, hard-worked hands from working the land in this season of life, a gentle smile in their eyes as they talked,loving to tell about their story, to pour the wine, and share their pride in their production.  The smell outside as we walked was so soothing, the air energizing and crisp.  As I am coming to know as normal for me, my heart clenched up with the thought of having to leave, having to be done-- and then it caught itself, reprimanded itself for the greed- and instead sent up a praise of thankfulness to the Lord for the gift of that piece of creation, the gift of friendship, the gift of recreation that day instead of ongoing responsibility.  It was a treat.  I am thankful that I could capture it in my heart, if not with my camera.