And Then What…?

We are moving across the line of one twenty year epoch (if I may be that dramatic!) of our lives into the next. This is based on all of our children being on their own as of the year 2020. We had yet another shift in church life. And we moved out of the stone house after living there for most of thirty years this past year. If you leave pandemics, government drama, and wars/rumors of wars out of the equation, there has been plenty left for us to be shaken and weary about. Still we are ready for changes that come with moving out of one house and on to the new project of homestead living. Mostly, we are grateful to God for being our refuge.

We were going to travel and do volunteer work as soon as our youngest moved out. We had dreams, albeit nebulous, of working for CAM, having the cabin be home base, and visiting family hither and yon. Such a mix-up of impossibility and opportunity. Real life has offered us this wandering road of events and conundrums instead.

I feel rebellious in my heart sometimes. So what was that all about then? Why did we not find ourselves ready for that flight? Said seeming cusp. This is the stuck-ness we had promised ourselves within which we would never engage. Humph!

Maybe we shouldn’t have spoken those dreams aloud. Now it feels like we have just been little kids playing at pretending wild schemes for fun. When is a dream more than a wild scheme for fun? We even walked in the right direction: we are living at the cabin (loving it), the Stone House is rented, and Elv is retired from leadership duties.

We obviously don’t know what we are doing yet to make this next twenty years meaningful and productive. I hope God does. What I really meant to say, is… I hope we are smart enough to let God order up the events and life work that is ahead. Maybe we can finally learn how to enjoy the solving of the puzzles of life. Right here. This one. This current life we are living today.

For starters, we aren’t in it alone. Nobody has foreknowledge of the future. Nobody else gets to pick our world events and catastrophes, either. Everybody has to adjust and change.

To fret the forest is to miss the trees. I am going to settle for living to the full, today, and it’s details.

~When there’s a picture to be taken, let me stop the car and do it.

~ When there’s a snow storm, let me sit cozy by the fire and play Scrabble with my husband person.

~ When there’s a wall to paint, a floor to mop, a shelf to arrange, let me roll up my sleeves and make it the prettiest, cleanest, and most attractive yet.

~ When I’m writing stories for my dad, let me focus and hear his heart, while I transcribe.

~ When spring comes, let my dream gardens become reality, with hard work, detailed plans, and God’s smile on each seemingly insignificant task.