I had a training that I went to in Billings, MT for a couple days that dad and I drove over for becasue on our return trip we stopped in Butte and picked up Curt and the three of us flew down to San Antonio. Dad had booked us a trip to Utopia, TX for a Christian men's golf retreat! If you've seen the movie Seven Days in Utopia then you know what I'm talking about, if not I highly suggest you check it out! It is a book turned movie which stars Robert Duvall as the wise old golf instructor who lives in Utopia and Lucas Black as the struggling touring pro who finds himself at a crossroads which leads him to Utopia. It is a very powerful story, even for those who don't golf. The men's retreat was spent learning countless valuable lessons for life, all while playing golf on what is described by the locals as the goat track country club! One of the main lessons of the story is in golf as in life we worry too much about things that have no real bearing on who we are, one round of golf on the Links of Utopia will bring this to your attention! In a world where we are catered to perfectly manacured greens, and flawless lies in the fairway, when you stroke the perfect putt only to watch it hit dozens of imperfections on it's line and caused the ball to miss the hole the first reaction is one of anger. Two or three holes later after the same results you start to realize, wether that putt gos in or not doesn't really matter!
The longer the weekend went the closer I felt connected to the Utopia mind set and I slowly began to remember why I started playing the game of golf, because it's fun! On Saturday of the retreat we spent the morning out in an old oats field outside of town alone just listening to what God had to say to us, an experience I won't soon forget! I encourage everyone to take these two steps as often as possible, step one, find a quiet place with no outside noise, step two, just listen. Sounds crazy I know but you might be amazed at what you hear:) That same afternoon we came back to the golf course as a group and broke up into foursomes for a round of golf. The three of us were joined by a man who owns a chain of restaurants on the East coast, a very nice man who even though his bank account alone is more than likely double what the three of ours are together he was extremely down to earth and joioned us in a little money game:) It was a pretty close match all 18 holes, he and Curt ended up taking a whopping 50 cents off Dad and I! When our match was finished we had about an hour and a half before we had to meet the rest of the group for dinner so Curt and I decided to stay out on the course and get a few more holes in. We ended up playing 8 extra holes and not only was that the most golf I've played in a long time, it was the most fun I've had in a long time! Naturally once it was the two of us we raised the stakes a bit and started playing $5 skins straight up and it was arguably the best 8 holes of golf either of us have ever played! We were trading birdies and caught up in a battle of shotmaking, surprisingly we literally traded holes the entire way. I started the game winning the first hole, then he won the second, and it went back and forth hole by hole until we finished even! It was pretty amazing to witness and I think we both felt like we were 12 years old again, not a care in our minds other than hitting that golf ball. All in all it was an amazing weekend and I took so much away from it I will not soon forget!
We spent one night in San Antonio on our way home and stayed right on the river walk. We took a boat taxi down to dinner and our restaurant was only three blocks form the Alamo, naturally the history buff in me couldn't pass up the chance to see that! The next day we got up and played the Quarry before catching our plane. This golf course is built in the bottom of a limestone quarry where all of the stone that was used to build the TX state capitol came from! It was an interesting experience as it is set down in a bowl of rock. We got on a plane later that day and flew back home, with tons of fond memories we wont soon forget!
The two weeks after that trip have pretty much been a blur, between home projects, work, and fun stuff like helping Jill coach Tatum's T-ball team, we've been busy! So we decided to unwind a bit by taking the weekend to celebrate Easter with the Dobson's in Stevensville. Only problem was Duchess didn't think we needed to slow down too much, we got here yesterday and she had two seisure's within a half hour so we took her into the emergency pet clinic in Missoula only to find out there is no real determinable cause for them and all we can do is keep an eye on her. It is a stark reminder to us that regardless of the fact that she won't stop playing fetch and never seems to run out of energy, she is going to be 12 in June and won't be with us forever. Any other day that thought would be hard to handle, but on the day that I am reminded that Jesus rose into heaven I understand that even though Duch won't be with us forever on this earth she too will rise one day to a place where the birds never stop flying and her bed is made of tennis balls!:) Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
Remember, no matter how blurred your time schedule becomes we all need to make some time to sit quietly and listen!:)
