I am blessed.

For about a dozen years or so, I've been fortunate to spend two weeks every summer at a Christian youth camp in Wisconsin, working alongside some great people. A handful of those people have been there consistently, year in, year out. They are an integral part of my faith family.

One of few regrets I have from those many weeks is that most of my extended blood family lives several states away, and because I get only limited vacation time each year, I don't get to spend nearly as much time with my blood family as I have with these special members of my family of faith.

As it turns out, I didn't get to spend that two weeks in the woods this summer; and as I expected, I missed my time with the people far more than I missed the smell of the pine trees, the cold water of the upper falls, the sand in my sleeping bag, the mosquitoes on my arms, legs, face, neck, growing bald spot and wherever else.

Today I started a long trip from Oklahoma to Ohio to visit blood family, with an overnight stop in St. Louis. After dropping my parents off at my aunt's house, I made a little side trip, 62 miles up the highway to visit Dianne Kinzer.

Dianne is an inspiration to me for many reasons. While I've worked at camp for a dozen or so years, Dianne and her husband, Bill, were counseling the camp when I was a camper, which if you're counting, is closer to two dozen years ago.

I wasn't much at 17 or 18, not that I'm much at 40. But at that time, I was very socially awkward, not very popular and the textbook definition of "nerd." Today's pic is me as a teenager. That should give you some idea. I don't know what Dianne saw in me then, but she saw something. She took an interest, and she took time to care when it would have been just as easy not to.

And I've never forgotten it.

So nothing could have made me happier after 560ish miles of driving today than the opportunity to spend a couple of hours drinking coffee with Dianne Kinzer in a Ruby Tuesdays in Litchfield, Illinois. It wasn't quite the same as two weeks together in the woods, but I'll take what I can get.

Thanks, Dianne.