It's Easter morning. Traditional services and gatherings are taking the back seat this year. Not that it's the right thing to do, but it's THE thing to do.
No matter what I do today, Easter and its promises are not lost in the hours of painting and schlepping and making this house ready for the sale.
This is my Friday. Endless "to do lists" and money payouts scare me. Both, thank goodness, are shrinking. Len is much more worried although he will never say it. He nods and allows my dreams to proceed, doing the work and making the commitment. I might be too much the dreamer but it's been a part of my life for so long, I'm not sure I could function without the probability of dreams floating over my reality. It's what got me beyond the heartache, to this place, and beside this man.
Shortly after we met in 2008, I invited him to go with me to the mountains to check on my mountain property. I was gifted one-half an acre decades earlier by my uncle who had a weekly date at auctions and would buy, sight-unseen. This mountain was a sight-unseen purchase. The mountain ownership of family lots shrunk to simply my lot, and I held on to it for dear life. No matter how little i had in my pocket, I would not sell it. It connected me to my family, to Uncle Ivet, the beast-of-a-man who would squeeze me silly every time I walked into a room. He was the only one of my family to do that; it wasn't lost on me.
Len didn't make the trip with me then, but he is today. From the ground up, it's the first thing that will be truly ours.
I see Sunday approaching. It's not in clear sight yet, but I know it's there. Without all these Friday moments, Sunday would not mean as much. Without the struggle and hard work, the resolution might be less than expected. Without the years of uncertainty and overwhelming pain, the place where I find myself today might not be as miraculous. Without the Friday dreams of mountain living, the little log cabin in the woods might remain in my head or lost in the shuffle of life.
Granted, my little piece of heaven in the mountains and getting this home ready to sell is NOT the Sunday or Friday to which the Easter story speaks. However, I think it is exactly what this day should remind us about living life, having faith, accepting Christ. I hold the promise that Easter morning brings and claim it in every aspect of my life. I think that's what Jesus was teaching us. You must do the hard work to get to the victory. Nothing is every easy and it's going to hurt. You'll struggle, and that's okay.
Yesterday, after our millionth-hour of painting, Len said, "Remember what we're doing this for. Keep going."
Much like Jesus reminds us each and every day. "Remember what I did for you and why I did it. Keep going.”

April 17, 2022