Keeping Our Heads Above Water - Chapter 29

May 20, 2016

There's this saying I painted on the Dining Room wall shortly after we moved into the Lakehouse......

"...And when we grow old, 

I will find two chairs 

and set them close

each sunlit day,

that you and I,

~ in quiet joy ~

may rock

the world away."

We had been married a short four years at the time.....and these words were romantic....they were sweet....they were lovey-dovey sappy....and they were the first words I had ever painted on a wall.  I spent hours....maybe even a day...carefully making sure they were straight and perfect on that Dining Room wall.  For fifteen years, they've been staring down at us over Thanksgiving dinners, endless games of Mexican Train Domino's and watching grandchildren grow out of high chairs into teenagers.

This week the wall is bare.  One of the many sacrifices of the Flood.  A new color replaces the old....a new chapter replaces the old.  ~ Deep breath.....and life moves on.



We are less than two weeks away from moving back into the home with the double swing on the back porch that Chuck built so many years ago for us to rock the world away.  It will have been 5 months since The Flood.....and we have learned so many lessons during this time.....

~ We have learned that we have too much "stuff".  That we can live with a fraction of the things we had on December 27, 2015.  Less stuff means a lighter load.....and we plan on lightening the load...ALOT.

 ~ We have learned we don't need to watch House Hunters International every night in bed.  We used to call it our little mini-vacation before falling asleep.  But the two houses we have lived in these past 5 months have had no TV in the bedroom....so we've been falling asleep talking or with a book in our hands instead.  And we are happier.....and smarter.

~ We have learned that sometimes God chooses people to go through things.  Remember Job?  I always thought Satan picked Job....but the reality is, it was God who suggested Job to Satan. "Have you considered my servant, Job?"  Chew on that one for awhile....

~ We have learned that good people still exist.  I have lost count of the meals we have been brought, money we have been given, hands and feet that have worked for us and arms that have hugged us.  At first I tried to keep track of everyone.....had a spreadsheet and everything...but I finally threw it up in the air and gave up.

GOOD - PEOPLE - STILL - EXIST, 

PEOPLE.

And we have learned we can still see a sunrise...a sunset...a crazy awesome cloud...and be moved to tears.  Some things never change...Flood or no Flood....and I always race to show Chuck the gift God gave my eyes and soul to see that day.

And then we sit out on the back porch and rock the day away.....
 

"YOU INTENDED
TO HARM ME,

BUT GOD

INTENDED IT ALL

FOR GOOD."

Genesis 50:20