Pithy Platitudes

So Rob and I are not big on pithy platitudes. In fact we aviod them at all costs. We both believe it does nothing but invalidate feelings we are meant to experience. But over the past five years and our many struggles we have landed on the following motto's for our own home:

1) There is my way, your way, and then there is God's way.
2) This one is stolen from my very own wise Uncle Gordon- Vices are just overdone virtues.

So where am I going with this...
Today was my last day at Valle del Sol. I have been there for five years. It has been a stabilizing force in our life and home. As I said my goodbyes today I pondered how complex my feelings are related to change. See, as a missionary's daughter I have said goodbye my entire life. In fact, I don't think until I married Rob I really knew much of anything else. See, his upbringing was about as opposite as mine. He spent most of youth and young adulthood in the same state, city and even home. He was surrounded by family and the family business as far back as he can remember. A good analogy to our different ways is constantly displayed in our physical home. Rob holds on to everything (and I mean everything). We have boxes after boxes of belongings. Well, I toss things after I don't find a purpose for them within the very same week I receive them (this goes for even the mail). Rob is constantly looking for things I have tossed. I am constantly trying to remember why I tossed them. Another great example...our furniture arrangment. Every couple of months Rob comes home to find everything in our home rearranged. It alwasy leads to us putting everything back in it's original place. The key has always been to find the balance somewhere in the middle: God's way not our way.

The complexity in my feelings leaving the office today lied in the strange comfort I found in leaving such an important and meaningful part of my life. I have wanted to part ways with Valle so many times and only in the past year have I not thought once of being anywhere else. But here I am leaving. I am sad but strangly comforted by my uneasiness.

This is not to say that the past week has been anything other than overwhelming. But something was different this time. The goodbye was expected, planned and there was closure. I have to give credit where credit is due...Robby showered me with support and acts of service. With only three days in town he spent it fixing a flat tire, moving boxes, walking the dogs for three hours at seven am in the morning and most importantly holding my hand. There is always time to change your relationship to "change".

So once again, you are probobly asking me...Where are you going with this? Well, I am amazed by God's grace as He continues teaching us with every breath we take. Robby's work at LAM requires him and our marriage to welcome change. Not only change but constant change. The past six months of our marriage have been little more than an ongoing series of goodbyes to one another. Ironic, that the man that resists change readily accepts such a position? Well, I guess if you believe in irony-but we don't. Furthermore, a job that is placed in my path that requires me to thoughtfully plan a goodbye. So once again I reminded there is my way, Rob's way and then God's way.

Many folks might think that all this change is just a season...please don't say it...it is just a pithy platitude. Work has never just been work. Both Rob and I throw ourselves into our work. It is our passion, our calling and in many ways part of our soul. See this is where the the whole, "vices are just overdone virtues" comes in. Rob and I would not pretend to say that living on opposite sides of the country is healthy for us or that we wouldn't have it any other way. That would be plain lie. We don't want to live apart and it has taken it's toll. We just couldn't see any other way. We are committed to our passions and felt the calling. We were and in many ways are still perplexed. Confused yet? I hope so because so are we. So instead of finding a simple solution we just take it day by day. Today, I accepted a job to be closer to Rob and we are discussing what is to come after Rob returns to his original position with LAM (part-time).

So we readily accept your support and prayer as we take it day by day and find God's way in our life, purpose, passion and calling.