Home Again

Yes, we're home.  We got here on Tuesday, Apr. 8th.  We had a slight delay leaving Texas so the Navigator could have an emergency root canal in Ft. Worth.  We were lucky to find a good endodontist with a Friday morning opening and spent an extra night west of Ft. Worth for recovery time.  Then on through Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois to home.  We were happy to see everything intact and functioning here and except for the mailbox being destroyed by a snowplow, all is in good repair.

When we're on the road, if I think about it at all, I picture everything at home as static, unchanging, sort of waiting for us to get back and pick up where we left off.  Rationally, I know that's not true, that life goes on, things change, but if I don't see it, it isn't happening, right?

The day after we got home, I was awakened by a phone call from a friend who told me that our good friend and the minister of our "small but mighty" congregation had been in a catastrophic auto accident and was on a ventilator.  There weren't a lot of detail available at that moment, but it started a week of meetings, vigils, services and potlucks.  Tragically, she died on Friday and the funeral was last night (Monday).  It's hard to describe the impact she had on me and on the community, and how much she'll be missed.  You can learn more about her here:   Georgette Wonders.  

Ironically, the last sermon she preached was on Facing Death.  As she quoted in her sermon:

To live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

~ Mary Oliver, from American Primitive; Back Bay Books, 1983

Words to live by.  

We'll let you know when we're on the road again.