Today we found out the exact date Lindsey leaves her job and, therefore, decided on the exact date we will pack the Budget Rental with all of our stuff, load up the dogs, and begin our journey west.
the big story? It turns out the date is a whole month sooner than we had been planning.
Wow that hit me like a ton of bricks this afternoon. They were bricks that caused a whole lot of excitement, mind you, but they were bricks all the same. After classes were over, I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning and sorting important mail and documents and making an itemized list of every expense this move will require us to be ready for. I’d already done this once before, but this was a more detailed description. A final look, one might say.
I’m still breathing after this afternoon’s rigorous mental money managing and am actually feeling quite positive about how the “moving fund” compares to the “moving expenses”. This, I believe, is a good sign.
The most exciting, and scary, part of today was the detailed moving schedule Lindsey and I wrote all over the next few days and months of the brand new 2010 lighthouse calendar Mom gave Lindsey for Christmas. When you see the black ink forever change the fabulously white squares that signify a particular day you’re supposed to be living in the future, it really sinks in that something is happening on that day. Not just laundry, or preparing a new dish for dinner, or some paper that’s due in one of my classes, but a real life-changing, eye-opening experience is coming…..and now I feel a little different than I did before Lindsey took a pen to that calendar. The plan doesn’t exist only in our minds or in the rooms of our condo where we sit and talk for hours; it’s dates on the calendar, and that, dang it, makes a big difference somehow.
I thought I had a lot to do before. Now I have a lot to do and a lot less time in which to do it. 3 1/2 months, my friends. 3 1/2 months.
It’s wonderful how scary but exciting it is to live a better story. When I begin to process what’s happening in my life, I feel like each new step is living like I’ve never lived before. And it makes me smile. And it makes me feel shaky and tired. And it makes me want more. Really….it does.
a better story 
I think the important thing to remember is that your life is already the best story ever written. Just look at who the Author is. Remember that no matter where you go or what you do, life will become monotonous if we forget that every moment counts. A good book is not a good book simply because of the climax or the ending, but because in every chapter, every paragraph, every line, every period and space, there is life, and every mark counts, every stroke of the pen matters. So whether here or there, or the next place you end up, make every moment count. We are but a mist that appears and then vanishes, so seize every opportunity and look for ways to glorify and serve our God WHEREVER you find yourself.
It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey.
Love you both.
Definitely Keri! That’s exactly what this blog is about…making choices every day to live a better story with my life. I see Jesus’ story as the best story ever written ad I don’t think my story’s climax or ending will come until the final wedding feast of the lamb when we become like Him! So, while I’m here on the earth, I’m going to keep living every day itentionally making choices to live life to the fullest, fully embrace the opportunities and experiences God places before me, and use what He’s given me. This blog is about one of those choices….the choice to move doesn’t change who I am, and Lindsey and I will keep being the same people and living the same life, but it sure will change where we do life and will expand our opportunities and experiences…and I think expanding our opportunities and experiences is definitely a way of living a better story with our lives…thankfully, it’s only part of the story! That’s why I created this blog so I can record some of the highs and lows of making those choices….chapter by chapter….day by day….. :)