Next Chapters… there have been many next chapters in life. Generally speaking, I don’t think I’ve realized I was in a next chapter until I was pretty immersed in it. When we put our beloved Snohomish farmhouse on the market three and a half years ago, I don’t know that I was aware a next chapter had begun. And because we didn’t move away immediately after the sale, the awareness still hadn’t set in.
Unfamiliar with the neighbourhood, I had to pay strict attention to new landmarks, street signs, etc., for many weeks following the move away from the farmhouse. A landmark I hadn’t initially noticed sure did bring the tears each time I made the first of a few turns in our new neighbourhood. It was a willow tree. For awhile, I found it easier to turn on the next block so I wouldn’t have to see it.
Over time, after many months — a year, maybe more — I began to come to grips with the reality that I was in the next chapter. I would never live in the former again. Everything was changed — nothing would ever go the same old way again — even though I often lived as though I wasn’t staying here, but that I would one day be able to go back home.
So many things pointed to the reality of this next chapter. This next chapter was well underway and I hardly noticed it. O, sure, I was noticing change, I was noticing my lack of interest here, the emptying nest, the perplexing difference between a farmhouse surrounded by land (glorious land!) and the tightly spaced houses in this neighbourhood… dog walkers, delivery trucks, kids playing in the street, and a gazillion cars and trucks parked everywhere.
But the reality of the next chapter truly only sank in when I realized we were back to just us. For the first time in well over 40 years, we were/are just us. And so began this next chapter. And it’s sweet. In the busyness of bringing up children, be self-employed in a ‘seasonal’ business, and all the life events along the way, I’m not so sure we ever even had conversations along the lines of: When we grow old and the children move away… what are we going to do? I’m not sure the thought even entered our minds.
But it has now. And so, here we stand at another crossroads in life and we are content watching the Lord lay out the road before us in this next chapter.
I felt compelled to share this message today bcz I got to thinking maybe someone’s standing in a similar place… not where you were, not where you thought you’d be, maybe not where you want to be, not sure where you’re going or what you’ll do when you get there. I pray that you’ll see joy again.
A line from a Booth Brothers song comes to mind pretty much every day:
Take another step, and another step, and another step, trust God and take another step, and another step, and another step…
