A Room with a View...

I spent a good deal of time on my roof the past week reshingling...because the pitch is so steep I often had to pause and rest. During these mini-breaks I found myself canvassing the entire neighborhood from a totally different vantage point. I loved the "birdseye" view but the enhanced perspective even more... I could track many people and things going on at the same time, as the circle of my peripheral vision was much wider....

.....then my thoughts would take me back to my younger years in Indonesia where me and my siblings would spend all kinds of time on our roof. It was so large and unique with lots of nooks and crannies for hiding. A favorite game was Hide n Seek. My bro Roland was particularly good at this...he would dissappear on the top of a roof of all places and we literally wouldn't be able to find him. It was great fun and often I would find myself up there just to think and be alone. I loved the perspective of being hidden but up in the sky....... it was different than being in a closet or under a bed. It was a place that would elicit dreams and fantastical thinking....

So....my mini-breaks sometimes turned into major nostalgic moments... I decided then and there that the next time my wife was gone I would take my 3 youngest kids up on the roof and share with them my foreign rooftop stories! Plus I knew they would love going up there. The first time up they were giddy with fear and excitement together. They loved it! I would tell them how to walk appropriately, what to avoid and where they could "hang out" without anyone seeing them, underneath the shade of some large leafy overhangs. I would tell them my stories of hide and seek, and other adventures. The other reason they loved it is becaue their older brother doesn't know it yet! Ha! He will be so ......shocked! So I totally loved the idea of passing the baton to them, now they can have their own rooftop adventures in their own way....(and hopefully not die!)

POSTLUDE:..... God...... must have the ultimate "rooftop" view and perspective. He can see all, all at once. He is 'hidden' only in some ways, but ever watchful. He is so "high" and yet can "zoom" in on any one event or person at will.... I normally don't like the feeling of someone looking over my shoulder or the notion of being spied upon...but yet in this context.....I like it....alot!. I felt a bit of that just being 30 feet higher myself. He, being a 'bazillion' feet higher can only mean He needs to be so He can keep his circle of peripheral vision perfectly sized to see all of us.....