Faith, Love, and the Pursuit of Sanity is an online journal written by Holly Anderson. You can find the Faith, Love, and the Pursuit of Sanity archives here or access all of Blissfully Domestic’s online journals here.

When I was little and my family embarked on our annual vacation every August, we would pile into the family vehicle (first a station wagon and then a big ol’ van) and take off. It was usually about a 12-hour trip to the coast, and my dad was one of those from his generation who believed that stopping for unnecessary things like peeing would just put us behind schedule.

So we didn’t take side trips along the way to see the nation’s largest pile of manure or anything like that, but my dad did do something so silly, so seemingly insignificant – yet has stuck with me all these years.

He would honk.

Every single time we would go through a tunnel like the one pictured above, he would always honk. He would wait until I would say, “Honk, Daddy, honk!” but I believe with all of my heart that he only waited so he could hear me say that, and not because he wasn’t going to honk if I didn’t.

The tunnels of everyday life can be so dark sometimes. They can seem to go on forever with no end in sight – with all kinds of situations lurking along the sides ready to pop up and slow you even further. As a parent, I am so guilty of looking so hard for the light at the end of the tunnel, that I sometimes forget to enjoy being in it. I often do not honk until one of my kids reminds me to.

My dad passed on to me the silliness of honking when you’re in the dark no matter how many cars are around you and how crazy they may think you are.

Thanks, Dad! I’m still working on it …

Photo by Jsome1

Holly Anderson lives in Noblesville, Indiana, with her husband and three sons, ages 18, 10, and 5 – the youngest with autism. She can also be found blogging about life at My (Un)Controlled Chaos.