Commute

By Beckie Carlson

One of my favorite parts of working where I do is the commute. You would expect me to say it is short or pretty or filled with awesome drive-thru restaurants, but that is not why. I do have to admit that it does have some beauty, the sunrise out here on the edge of civilization is pretty amazing. These days I have to work hard to position the visor so my retinas don’t get charred, but it is pretty. I drive amongst a bunch of drones that don’t annoy or fill me with joy. The drive isn’t long. But, the best part is who I drive with.
A big reason I stay at my school is I can drive my boys to school every day. They attend the school on the same big campus. I can go visit them at lunch if I really want to embarrass them. I can also keep an eye on alien attacks or herds of wild dogs from my classroom window. It’s pretty convenient.
There are two ways to get to school. One way is new, clean, and long. The other is dirty, dusty, and quick (cuz you can ….go faster….). The boys and I decided we would forgo the nice new roads in favor of saving an average seven minutes of driving each day. Yes, we actually timed it and figured that out.
Going the back way, we have experienced a sort of prophetic phenomena. After going down a fairly long straight road from our house, we make a 90 degree turn to the right. As soon as we turn, we can see the Gilbert temple off in the distance. It is quite a distance away, so the first time we saw it we were kind of shocked. It stands, as a beacon to us across the wild desert. After driving for a few minutes, the temple seems to disappear, as though it was never really in sight. We search and squint and strain our eyes and necks to see it, but it is not to be seen. Just before we have to make our next turn, there’s the temple, peeking out from behind some trees.
The rational explanation for the temple coming and going from sight is obviously a change in the height of the road we are on, but the spiritual application is better. I told my boys that seeing the temple is like the Spirit or inspiration. At times, we are right on track and we can see everything clearly. Other times, we may still be moving forward, but the goal is not quite as clearly in sight. This is where our faith steps in and we have to just keep on driving. The temple doesn’t move, our Heavenly Father doesn’t move, but sometimes….we go up and down on our path to them. Good times, bad times, trials, choices….all of these things are going to be on our road. Our job is to keep on driving. Keep on looking for our end goal. Keep on having faith that it will all work out for our good.
And of course, every now and then, play Bohemian Rhapsody at full volume.
Cause I said so.

Photo credit: www.ldschurchtemples.com