Changes…

June 6- “My biggest problem in life is that I don’t have enough time to do all of the outdoor activities I love.”

This was the last line of my first blog post a month before my brother passed away suddenly on July 10th. Since then, my dad has died of cancer and my brother in law also lost his dad unexpectedly. Our family has suffered overwhelming grief and turmoil this past year.

It hasn’t always been this way. I feel like I have lived a blessed life. I grew up in a middle classed Christian home with parents who loved each other and their family. High school had its expected drama, but we didn’t have cameras in our pocket or internet so everything that happened was forgotten almost as quickly. I met my husband early and married young. Three adult kids later, we still like to be together, so that’s a bonus.

July 10th is the day my life changed or perhaps when the changes began.

Since then, our family, in all its brokenness, values life and each other above all else. We were intentional with our time with Dad, knowing that there wasn’t enough of it.

We never miss an opportunity to tell each other, “I love you.”

We have learned how to be strong when we thought we weren’t and we’ve learned to allow ourselves to be weak when we couldn’t be strong anymore.

We let others step in and help.

We connect everyday, initially over our Wordle score, but then about our lives.

We have re-evaluated what is important. For me, this meant realizing I needed more margin for my family and myself. I’ve taken next year off work to concentrate on my studies and breathe a little more freely. A bachelor’s in Leadership, here I come!

Change can be hard, it can also be good and it is very often necessary. For me, this year, it has been all three of these.