Nearing the end

We have been diligent at packing, and are far ahead of the usual packing schedule, though not done. As we move closer to the end of our time here, it becomes harder to want to do the last of the packing, the last of the cutting loose ties that have formed, the last --

It's amazing to me that as much as we look forward to getting out of difficult situations, we still find it hard to cut all the ties. Some of those we leave are jumping for joy, others are saying "Oh, well, it happens" and going on, a few are truly expressing distress over what is happening. And they are the ones that make it most difficult to let go and go on.

Over the years, there have been many who affected us so, and they aren't forgotten, from the couple in our first church who gave our daughter her orange stool, to the couple who gave us so many worked rock book ends, to the woman in our second church who stood up for us when the church decided we were to leave two weeks before school was out, to the woman who refused to allow me to go into the water-filling basement to retrieve items for the men of the church preparing to move our things into storage, to the couple that stepped in with a loaner car when our own car froze the engine, to the folk of our third church that showed me how gracious a church can be through their care of our family through the death of my father and my wife's traumatic surgery on a cyst in her neck, to the folk in our fourth church that shared staunch support in the face of emotional reactionary stances and shared their humor with us, to the folk in the fifth church that repeatedly showed their love through caring extended to our daughter through her lupus treatment and research and their constant and abiding presence in our need, to the folk I've mentioned here.

That's what makes the leaving difficult even in the face of difficult standards, resistance to the change that is part of life itself, and uncertain future. I'm I wanting to stay here? No! But will there be pain at the departure? Yes!

Life is difficult. We go on!

Peace!