The Little Things

Everyday life. Everyday life is an adventure in and of itself. Anyone who is reading this will probably think, "Duh" or "Sheesh, cliche much!?" Regardless, it is something that is a new part of my journey and it is something that I am starting to do. Most of us simply live others try to live simply. This is not just some monetary slogan, it is an event slogan. Either you are busy, or you aren't. Either you try and get things done or you don't. Either your day is fretted or it is fret-less. Do you get what I mean?

I have a girlfriend, a car, some cash in my pocket and I am sitting here thinking, WOW! this seems vaguely familiar. Have I been here before, I wonder? Six years. It has been over six years since I was last in this position. Then I had a girlfriend, a car, and some cash in my pocket too. But then it was all meaning-less, hope-less, and going nowhere. It has been six years since I left everything for Christ and I am now in exactly the same type of position I was then but now, while the same, everything is different.

Post-Rivendell each thing seems to be more colorful if not at least more meaningful. I cry at what I use to laugh at. I laugh at what I use to cry at. What is different? I am beginning to wonder if it is not the little things. While little individually, collectively it feels a little overwhelming. I am hope-filled, not knowing where I am going still but definitely knowing I am headed in the right direction. Little things make all the difference or at least they seem to be making all the difference.

*shrug*

As usual, it takes me months to update my blog. SO very many have taken place in the last few months that it appears too much of challenge to chronicle it all here. However, four key things come to mind: Graduation, Girl, Dad, and Family.

Graduation:
I have graduated! I did so with honors and special distinction. What a journey Rivendell has been! If you look back to some of the previous posts you will realize that I have been traveling this path for 3 years. This leg of my path is finally complete. I have completed the program which boasts of reading 413 sources and 12,000 pages while asking and answering some of man's greatest questions via some of man's greatest minds, all within the context of man's great story via the bible. God has answered one of my continual prayers: that He would be himself. He is faithful and good. My life is a living epistle of those two attributes.

Girl:
I have in fact met a girl - women really. She is beautiful, pretty, funny, smart, humble, sensitive, and she is even deeper than me (if you can imagine that! :-p). However, this is about as much as I am willing to blog about. After all, I enjoy my privacy.

Dad:
Two months ago, my father died unexpectedly. While it seems silly now to say unexpected for when is it ever capable of being expected?, it has left its mark on my heart. Death is a new experience for me. While troubles and hurdles may be gotten over, death is something that you must learn to live with rather than without. While much could be said about such a topic I find that my innermost feeling is not sorrow for my loss of him but of his loss of me. Before his death I was able to share many of my dreams and hopes with him, in so doing we both eagerly hoped to see the days when those things were to come. Alas, they are here and he is not. It is the joy that he will never experience that brings me such grief. O' that he might have delighted in these things with me.

Family:
Due to my new home here in Minnesota and my unexpected family connections in this area, new relationships have been forming. I have aunts uncles and cousins that I have never met coming forward to make this new place truly a home. I am thankful that so much heritage is here in Minnesota. Who knew!?

Till next time,
Joey