daily bread

Well, today was better.

We are being lavishly loved by our neighbours, our families and all you crazy dudes who read and pray. I feel the community lifting us up to the Father. Really I’d like him to be my Great Magician and take all my problems away or at least make Him take the rap for all this. Somehow I’m learning/have got to learn how to let him be my companion in my fear and pain and accept the comfort he offers. Jayber jokes that God reckoned I needed one final lesson in letting go of control which has been something of a theme over these 2 years. I have no doubt that particular lesson is not over yet, but maybe there has been the tiniest hint of progress,. At least this time I didn’t throw things, eh?

The keys were found, I sat down and wept. Sometimes he does the magician bit too.

We were booked with Zoom for our flight home.

They just went belly up.

We lost $2000 of plane tickets and had to buy $3000 more. Oh, and this will involve a detour to LAX, an arrival in Dublin, and leaving 3 days earlier than planned.

I feel a little bitter and twisted. There has been a lot of swearing.

Bizarrely, I seem to be fixating on the fact we can’t find our 2nd set of car keys – projection, I guess.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck and it’s hard to imagine that getting much better in the craziness of the next few days.

I’d love some shalom in the middle of all this, pray if you can.

Who ever said ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’? . Nonsense, it bloody hurts.

Thankfully most of my friends here are likeminded and we all agree to not mention the g-word. “See you soon’, doesn’t feel quite so final, more like a comma on a friendship rather than a full stop.

So I’ve said ‘See you soon’ to two very dear friends, Lynette and Mary. Quite honestly it is very hard to imagine life without a constant fix of their wisdom and spiritual direction. We will keep in touch, for sure, but it is such a pleasure to just sit with them and drink them in. I will miss it.

The house is very bare now. Meanwhile, back in the wilds of the North our other house is slowly being filled back up with our things and made ours again. It’s a weird piece of symmetry, but quite comforting to know that we have a place somewhere. I’m also pretty excited to rediscover my house and all the things I left behind.

The grubby walls have been washed down, the evil venetian blinds have been taken down and hosed. We’ve explored ( a little warily) all that has been living behind and beneath our fridge and been engaged in battle with the oven for some days now. We are slowly removing every sign that we were ever here and perhaps when we have gone we will wonder if it was all a very strange dream.

Keep her lit lads, it seems to be working – Eli has slept a little bit later each morning and woke up today at 650! Hooray!! (Slight moment of rage when I looked at my watch and saw 445am only to realise it had stopped during the night. Phew)

This is it. The last week in Vancouver. I’m savouring it like the last mouthful of wine in the glass and speaking of wine, there has been quite a bit used for medicinal purposes these last weeks and the ‘weekends only’ rule has been thoroughly abandoned.

Today the last few boxes will go to the airport, Jayber and I meet with James Houston (not entirely sure why, J has been seeing him a bit and he wanted me there for the last one) and then a mammoth cleaning session while 2 kind souls take our children somewhere. The house is pretty bare now which shows up the sticky finger marks all the more. I think I shall delegate that to Jayber……

{ Edit }

For the love of God, beam me up scotty……

Are there any sleeping tablets you can take that last 3 weeks? I should very much like to by-pass the next 21 days of emotional turmoil, stress and ‘lasts’.

Now, now,chin up, this is a thankfulness blog after all:

I am thankful for all the people buying all our stuff which financed a massage today (that I needed because of all the stress of selling all our stuff).

I think I’ll maybe go away and come back when I am feeling a bit more thankful.

(like in 3 weeks)

It’s going to be sporadic and brief these next few weeks as we immerse ourselves in the business of swopping continents. Lately I’ve been feeling thankful in anticipation of being back ‘home’…..

…my very own washing machine, that actually removes stains

…room to swing a number of cats

…my very beautiful kitchen table, ahhhhh

…rediscovering all my kitchen stuff

That’ll do for now.

The camera lives! It’s a miracle!

This is JM stunned at our resurrected camera.

Not only that, but Dell agreed to send us out a new keyboard for free to replace the one which is missing half its keys. (Can anyone guess which small member of the family is responsible?)

Eli+electrical goods=disaster

Grateful for all these technological moments of grace.