December 6 2014

December 6 2014 Greetings My Friend To me “showing” the fruits of my labor has been so important most of my life. I felt when people “saw” then they’d know I had value and worth. I wanted that so much and did not feel I had any. As we settled into our new to us home I wanted it to be renovated and then begin to show it off so others could see Junior’s talents, our hard work etc. I wanted to entertain friends and family in a beautiful home. Junior and I are not the kind of couple that people want to hang out with. Prior to Junior it was a given for me to have family over, have friends from time to time etc. This marriage for some reason though Junior and I find ourselves quite comfortable hanging out alone a lot. The long length of time it is taking to finish our home grows more comfortable with me these days also. Part of the slowness has helped me get back on my feet again. When I first retired I wanted to continue to keep house like I did when I worked. I wanted to do housework in blocks of time and then head out the door to whatever. Health issues has taught me to do housework in spurts and it is working out rather nicely. I am learning to be comfortable with a whole lot less running and socializing these days. I need it too. In learning to slow way down and not having our home renovated in little or no time we’ve had a chance to learn the flow of life for us and we are making sounder decisions in the renovation of our home. At first we were going to hire a master bedroom to be added to our home giving us more square footage. That did not go as planned and I am ever grateful we didn’t have it done. Today we see how we want to expand the spare bedroom, add a master bathroom to the expansion which works even better than the original plan. The footprint of the kitchen has changed in the process also. With time to live in the home we see a better use of our space. Slowing down has been hard but in the end it is worth the four years we’ve put into this process with another year or two to go yet. Taking time to be alone as a couple has drawn us closer together. We are a team working for a common goal and it works out so nice. We could have had everything done right away and then spent more years changing. In the quiet we learn to seek God to listen to God and to grow content in God. There will be a day the major work will be done. We all know that owning a home is an ongoing process to keep it in shape so down the road Junior will always have some sort of work to do, it just won’t be as intense as it is now. This process has been a preparation time for us. A time to settle into retirement and to find our niche in our older years. Our days of short term mission trips are fairly much over with. Our days of leading workshops for remarrieds are over. Our work these days seems to be reaching into our community and coming alongside of others in need. My writing is a ministry too. Both of these types of ministry needs a lot of quiet time so we can be available as needed. In the taking time to reflect, we learn to turn our direction towards God who then points us to where He wants us to be. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet