Free to go….

Dave is in Copper Canyon.  I am in Champaign.  We are both thriving and succeeding and smiling.  He just called with 4 minutes available phone time, telling me he is on his own for a few days.  He spontaneously hopped off the train to hike to the bottom of the canyon tomorrow with a group of French students.  He is sporting a new hat, given to him by his new “friend forever,” Alberto, who bestowed the hat as he announced the title.  Dave is happy, happy–and confident that taking people to this place of wonder in Mexico is his next venture.

He is free to begin that and build that and do that and love doing that. 

I, on the other hand, am facing my last week of work here and planning for the first weeks of my new job in Pennsylvania.  Both are proving to be fun and promising and energizing (and a bit fatiguing).  Someone who knows me professionally pretty well told me today that I sound “light-hearted.”  So I am.  For Dave and me both. 

I determined long ago that I would live with the clearest conscience possible.  In the Bible, we are instructed to “as far as it is possible, live at peace with all men.”  Once I noticed the words “as far as it is possible,” it became a possible freedom that I have kept close.  Living with a clear conscience is not easy.  It takes a lot of introspection, communication, reflection, and prayer.  But I think that my light-heartedness today is really just the deep knowledge that I have done my job here well and that now, I am free to go. 

Dave is free to go to Mexico and Colorado.  I am free to go to Bucks County.  We are free to go together and free to go seperately.  And with the freedom comes a stronger commitment to be together than ever before.