2011 was a year of many changes for me. It was also the first full year of learning how to put pictures on “Reinventing the We’ll.” Let’s see what happened shall we?
In January I moved back to my childhood home.
You may remember my fight with the black berries at Muddy’s house. in the spring.
And the building of the “Pseudo-Elizabethan” garden. I learned that reclaiming and rebuilding territory is not a quick process.
In June I was relieved of my duties as interim youth pastor by one of my students who was newly credentialed and married. I am so blessed to have Pastor Brad and his wife Cassie on board!
I got a great gift out of the deal and a name that has served me well since! I learned God wastes nothing, not even a good joke.
All three kids came home for a brief visit this summer. They still call this home but more and more their lives seem to be elsewhere.
I got to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law at their home in Maine…my first alone vacation. Weird! Yet in the midst of all the changes I learned that family will always be family.
These lessons all came between the wild storms of course!
I have wondered often about the clouds this year. What do they speak about our future? I can only say that change is definitely in the wind!
That notion of course was totally borne out by the fact that Christmas came at Halloween both outside and in.
We had to celebrate early! After all Duddy was moving to Amsterdam to begin her career as a missionary.
So lots of changes in 2011. Virtually nothing went untouched. Some of the changes I am barely ready to look at…others I have embraced and walked into; Most I am still on the fence about. Truthfully though how I feel about ’em doesn’t really matter. I can take the snapshot and freeze forever the memory of the moment but in the end the picture is not life. No… life is that thing that draws us on into the unknown. It’s the thing we haven’t seen or photographed yet. Life makes us stand on the precious resources of memory and experience so that we may reach the hopes and possibilities it holds out to us.
As I look at the year in pictures I see a year I never could have predicted. I guess I have learned to better hold my breath because prophet that I am I have no idea what adventure lies around the next corner.
Reinventing the We'll 