It was bound to happen eventually. Friends at the church we left behind are doing a baby dedication for their youngest child tomorrow we’re invited to the service as well as for lunch afterward. Hmmm. They said if I didn’t want to come, they’d understand, and my wife has not committed me to be there but I’m thinking I might go anyway. It bugs me that there should be anyplace on the planet that I’m reticent to show up at, so that’s part of it… but I’m conflicted because of all that happened there. Not sure what emotions, memories, feelings it would bring up. It’s been about 11 months since the “event” which shook us loose there; not sure if that’s enough time passed to be able to visit. Maybe we’ll see…. my condition will be sitting at the back, naturally. Maybe I’ll also get to SBT in the evening; we all miss it, having not been there in over a month now.
Spent the day today packing and moving stuff into a storage locker we rented one a couple of weeks ago, filled it, then today rented a bigger one, moved all the stuff from the smaller one into it, then took two pickup truck loads from the house and stacked it in there as well. This gets most of the “clutter” gone now, and maybe one more load will finish it up. Why, you ask? All in preparation to sell the house, getting it ready to show…. we’ll be moving soon into a house we’ve yet to find and purchase in a different part of the city (even the best plans sometimes have little holes in them, like not having another house yet). We’ve been looking a bit and came close to putting in offers on two different houses, all while doing a whole bunch of touch-ups and minor renovations getting our place ready to sell. “Minor” renovations. I ripped out a wall, gutted the space where the ensuite shower was (including a 4′ square section of the floorboards) and basically reconstructed the whole ensuite (sink and vanity cabinets excepted). My wife then painted the ensuite and master bedroom and I put down laminate flooring in the bedroom, followed by new baseboards in both rooms. And then she made me start cleaning up my study. *sigh.* Maybe I’ll get a main floor study in the new place, though I rather doubt it’ll be as big as the 300 square feet I occupy at present. We’re looking forward to settling in our new neighbourhood though, hoping it works out. We’ve already enrolled our oldest in a Brownies group in that area. Now all we need is a good price for our house, to find a house we can afford that has everything we want in the area we want it, win the inevitable “real estate auction,” make the posession dates line up favorably, pack up all the stuff we own into boxes, and con all our friends into helping us move it before they figure out how many boxes of books there will be and how heavy they are. Sounds like a plan. Help, Lord?
On another church note, our “gathering” meets tonight at our place. It’ll be a smaller group than usual, so maybe that will mean more wine and appetizers to spread around. It could happen. The person who was to facilitate also jammed last night, leaving me to come up with something. So here I am blogging instead. I’ve still got a little over three hours…. okay, I better get to it.
Hey Bro (it’s me, the one who jammed) thanks for covering for me tonight. Sorry for putting you in a tight spot. I trust all went well.
Just wrapped up; a good time was had by all. Well, all those who attended! And those who did also know the mystery of why there was a big rock on the coffee/communion table.
Interesting… we are five years along the road from the exodus event. In the first year I avoided the place.. and the people. In the second year I dropped in with my wife a few times. Same for third year. Fourth year I nearly forgot the old haunt existed. This year there is a change.. the change is in us and also in them, a new freedom and something new in the journey itself that is still unfolding. This is my story, of course, and not yours and not intended to imply that yours will or should be the same :)
The awkwardness of relationships after leaving a church doesn’t seem right when we are talking about the kingdom of God and brothers and sisters in Christ. Apparently though, it is fairly typical. I definitely relate to how you feel. Let us know how it was for you.
Grace, it was definitely interesting. I’ve been asked a few times this afternoon about it… and I was determined not to let it “out-weird” me. In this I was successful. Nobody asked where we were attending church now my wife’s pre-stated strategy was to ask about the other person before they could ask anything about us. It was nice to see some of the folks we haven’t for a while, but the ones we have relationship with we would make an effort to see anyhow, and we do. I noticed that there were a lot of people there now who I don’t recognize, and maybe they now outnumber the ones I do… which might indicate the “revolving door” problem is still there, and maybe worse. Overall, the whole place just seems somehow strangely smaller. In a way, it felt like how you never look at Santa Claus in the mall the same way again after you learn the truth about the whole conspiratorial affair.
Other than that, it went quite well, actually.
Thanks for sharing that. It was very interesting, especially the comment about it seeming smaller.
You are a bigger man than me. I know I would still let it “out-weirded” me. However, in our circumstance, that may be permanent.
One does see things differently when you’ve seen the wizard behind the curtain.