Beautiful day in the Napa-hood

…where everyone’s your winey neighbor.

I mean, seriously — is it even possible to be in anything less than an uh-may-zing mood when you’re in Napa?

Yes, I hand-ordered this day, thankyouverymuch. Perfect sky, warm sunshine, beautiful scenery…it was a bit like Heaven. With wine. Well, actually, Heaven probably has wine, knowing Jesus and his miracles, right? So yeah, it was a bit like Heaven. Which might even have better wine than Napa, come to think of it. Mmmm.

We had a driver, which was absolutely key, and I felt all fancy-like being shuttled around wine country by George and his shiny black car. A sommelier friend from home recommended some of his favorite wineries, so I made good use of that list and trusted his expert opinion.

Our first stop was Trefethen, which was a beautiful winery with a long, sweeping, tree-lined drive, and was a lovely way to begin the day.

Our server was awesome and gave us a couple of complimentary tastings, including his wife’s favorite red, which was delicious. I really liked this vineyard and would definitely buy some of their wine, which is distributed throughout the East Coast as well.

Our next stop was Miner Family Winery, which was another big success. It had a beautiful deck out front (where I’m sitting in the first pic of this post) with a gorgeous view of the surrounding vineyards, and people were sprawled and basking in the sunshine while enjoying their tastings. They’ve created a really comfortable, welcoming place that practically begs you to sit back, put your feet up, and relax. Done.

There’s something about such raw natural beauty that stuns me into silence every time and grounds me, calling me back to a simpler understanding of how elemental, how honest life really is meant to be. At my core, I feel the truth in this; how God speaks to me through nature and gently reminds me what coming home feels like, back to a place outside of myself and my own silly busy-ness and fractious life, where things like the bluest sky and miles of open fields stretching as far as the eye can see become a landscape for a life where I am unafraid to dream of being more than who I am. It’s times like these where I feel God stirring within me and reminding me that He has so much more in store for me, if only I can get past my own tendencies to make Him too small, to put my belief in tiny boxes for “one days.”

God has big things ahead for me, I believe. I didn’t need wine country to teach me that, but falling in love with a sky like this certainly helps put things in perspective. I left California with a promise in my soul that I would not waste any more of my life chasing the wind, but that I would step forward in my faith and trust that God can use me in ways I might have never even imagined.

Our lives are all telling stories. I am ready to live out some dreams in mine.

Question:

What’s an unresolved dream you have, or something you want to accomplish?
or on a lighter note:
Where haven’t you been that you want to go? 🙂

 

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