Friday 3 January 2014

A Whirlwind

I had the most eventful year; it was a whirlwind of time, of adventure, of loss, of laughter and tears…a whirlwind of life.

In the old year, I flew off on an adventure to a land of amazing history, a land that speaks out from the very ground, all around the words of people long gone, prophets, men of armies long ago and now, women who cared for their men and lost their children, prophets calling out God’s truth…Christ, God himself , words and steps and tears...calling from the ground filling the air, so much that I did not know which way to look, to hear, to taste…Israel, a whirlwind of adventure, a whirlwind of time.

In the old year, I witnessed death once more; death, the thing we are all born to do…the thing that is so full of grieving, so final, that it is indeed life itself, for it is something that never leaves, it is a breathing in and out, seeing, watching, waiting, breathing in and out, as natural as that…as hard as that…I watched and heard and felt that last breath, my Dad's breath…a whirlwind of loss.

In the old year, I sold my home, the last home I lived together with a man whom I grew up with but would not grow old with; a home full of memories, family, laughter, building, making new…new dreams…almost as many as those that filled our whole life together, his life lost there, so short, the blink of an eye, yet it was a lifetime. So, yes, in the old year I sold my home…a whirlwind of packing up memories, some in boxes and some blown in the wind.

In the old year I bought a new home; a home that when I first saw it I knew it was mine, before I gave a penny, before I brought a piece of myself or my life into it…I knew it was mine.  A new home that speaks of peace and healing and breathing, a home that calls out forgiveness, laughter, life…a new home already filled with God’s blessings, His grace, His love.  A new home full of life, breathing in and out and whispering; whispering new life.

And in between all these were other days too, days full of moments blowing about filling all the spaces that were there to fill, friends loving, family wanting, time spinning...some with tears and some filled with laughter, the laughter of my grandchildren those here who live close by and those who came from Ontario bringing with them long awaited hugs and love and energy, all of it surely lasting to the next visit...it has to. 

All these eventful days blowing in and out, here and there, chasing out the old year and bringing with them all the new that is about to begin.

I am about to enter another whirlwind…

I love that.