Beautiful North Carolina

Sunday morning Gary and I drove up to Asheville, NC to visit my brother who is in a nursing home there. It was his birthday and we wanted to go up and surprise him and have a little celebration for his birthday. It just so happened that it was also the peak week-end for the leaves. We took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the sights were breath taking. It is just so colorful and beautiful that you just can hardly believe that the leaves are in the process of dying. How can anything dying be so beautiful? God in all His Majesty has a wonderful way of doing things.

When you are looking at all the beauty and you know that only God could do something this beautiful, yet that same Awesome God knows our name and how many hairs are on our head, and He wants a relationship with each of us. It is mind boggeling. It gives you a different perspective on life. It was hard to see my brother in the condition he is in. He has bone cancer and lots of other health issues and we don't know how much longer he will be with us. We do know he will live forever and one day we will be together again, but it is still very hard to see him in the condition he is in now. So we had sights of some of the most beautiful life has to offer and sights of some of the hardest parts of life. A nursing home regardless of how good it is (and this one is quite nice) and takes good care of their patients. However, you see some of the saddest situations in there. Very hard to see. We were hoping to be able to take my brother out for a drive so he could see the beautiful leaves, but he just was not able to go. I did bring him some leaves back so he could see them. Of course they have trees around the home that are beautiful too.

I felt like we brought a little joy to his life by coming up for a surprise visit and having a small birthday celebration for him. He still has his sense of humor. He told me I should have let him know we were coming because what if he wasn't there? I told him I wasn't too concerned that he wouldn't be there. I was able to re-arrange his room a little for him to make it work better for him. It was good to be able to visit him and I am hoping we will be able to go see him again soon.

After we left to come back home, as we were coming into Florida we were greeted by this sunset. It really was quite pretty and this picture taken through the front windshield as I was driving doesn't do it justice. We had been talking on the way home how we wish Florida had a little more color. We don't have it in our leaves, but the sky has some very pretty sunsets.

It was good to be back home again.