This Wife’s Prayer

Less than five months after Dave’s decision to leave his position at Grace, Dave is settling into his cowboy job in Colorado and I have a whole ton of coaching clients in Pennsylvania.   Joel and I will move into our PA condo next week and my life of solitude comes to a close.  We have a pending contract on our house in Illinois so those chapters of our life are coming to an end.  I am making a list of things to do together when Dave comes to PA in the fall.  Washington’s Crossing, the Jersey shore, Pearl Buck’s house, the train into Philly, the bus to NYC for Wednesday half-price Broadway shows, jazz in local bars, a long hike along the Delaware River, dinner with Bunny’s aunt and uncle, a long weekend in the upper northeast in the fall, and definitely the Cubs vs the Philly’s next year.  Maybe we will become hockey fans and cheer for the Flyer’s. Dave is making a list of things to show me when I make a trip to Bear Basin Ranch to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.  He assures me there is a horse that I will not mind too much. 

As I sat in my new PCA church home this a.m., listening to a fine message of truth, I missed the creativity my husband brings to a church service.  Dave has a gift that he must not stifle.  He has worked hard to develop that gift into a honed and remarkable skill that has resulted in immeasureable eternal benefit.  He is a thinker and an artist.  He has become a speaker and a presenter.  It is this wife’s prayer that God will place my husband in an environment where his deep convictions and unique abilities will be lived out fully expressed to the glory of God, the edification of the church, and the drawing of many to follow Christ.  This adventure is not ending….no way.  It is only beginning.

Grace and Goose Poop

So, after two weeks of being in Bucks County all alone, I am still thriving.  Though I do admit to a bit of loneliness last Friday and Saturday.  Maybe a bit of Mother’s Day musing, a bit of sadness over having to give up our good dog, Sheena (who is the only dog I have ever really bonded with), and also a number of challenges with giving up and letting go as we finalize severing the relationships with our possessions and loved ones in Champaign.  Dave has worked hard getting our house in Champaign ready to sell and our home ready to move.  We talk alot.  I miss Dave and will miss him even more next week when his cell phone coverage is limited.

Being alone takes some discipline and focus.  In a message from LifeChurch, Craig made the observation that we can either fear failure or regret.  I am intent on not regretting how I spend these five weeks of being alone.  I look forward to having Joel here and having our own place and, eventually, sharing Bucks County and the fun places I am discovering with Dave, but in the meantime, every day matters and I want to have something to show for the gift of solitude I have been given.  Focus and intention and discipline is what I am learning.

One life lesson from staying on Pidcock Creek Road and the multi-millon dollar estate….There is a long, winding lane that is lovely….past a pond and over a stone bridge, past the house to my parking spot under a blooming dogwood tree and facing the gardens.  The flowering plums and crabapples are just about past.  But the peonies and iris and clematis are just about to burst open.  I find myself slowing down whenever I enter the property.  It would be wrong, somehow, to drive fast past all the natural beauty.  Yesterday, I took a walk around the grounds and saw lots of common birds like robins and sparrows and cardinals as well as a hawk.  I also glimpsed a groundhog and watched a little mouse.  One morning, early, I watched a doe and her very small fawn explore the immaculately groomed lawn (in spite of the deer fence).  Yet, amidst all the beauty and natural wonder, there are geese–and goose poop.  Lots and lots of goose poop.  All over the lane and the lawn around the pond.  Just like with Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, and in our Home Owners Association in Champaign, and anywhere else that there is a pond or lake–geese poop.  And no matter how you feel about geese, their poop is a nuisance.  So, the life lesson is that no matter where you are living, there will always be poop to contend with.  The goal is to contend and deal with it all (disappointment, loneliness, manure) with grace and truth.