A Fall Getaway to Lake Tanwax

We Do Sunday Series: Enjoying Life after Trauma

Knowing how much baggage we carried into our marriage, we understand that we truly did do our best to enjoy life after trauma. Thank you for walking down memory lane with us during this Sunday series.

“A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.”
—William Wordsworth—

I had set a seemingly unreachable goal to write the book that would become Trauma in the Pews by the end of October 2021. As the target date approached, I expressed my overwhelming longing to be able to write while looking out over water. Scott set to work to find a place nearby that would fit that criteria. What he found was remarkable. Lake Tanwax was about twenty minutes from our house and this is what we saw when we arrived. I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough to take the picture. I was sure it was an illusion that would suddenly vanish!

“A lake so vibrant in color that it looks like a fine art painting."
― Stefanie Payne—

I have never stayed in a place this close to the water. If I tripped out the front door, I could have easily landed in the lake! There is a peaceful flow in the writing in Trauma in the Pews that feels like the gentle waves that lapped against the dock while I wrote.

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."
—John Ruskin—

The weather was cool, the sky was moody, and the small house was cozy and quaint. I worked on a puzzle (second picture) while my brain searched for the solutions to the places where the book needed revision. Scott relaxed and fed us well. It was exactly what I needed to finish Trauma in the Pews.

The most remarkable part of our stay was how the lake transformed at night. At one point, waves began moving across the water from some unknown destination at the end of the lake. I stepped outside to watch them work toward and then past me. I was transfixed as I marveled at a seemingly unseen presence moving on the water. I know now that Trauma in the Pews would eventually move across the world just as the waves quietly moved on the water that night.

“Even a pebble cast in the middle of a lake creates ripples that eventually reach the shore."
—Jeffrey G. Duarte—