back in Bako....
Sorry to keep you all in suspense.
Well, Steven and I made it back to Bako. That's short for Bakersfield, and an especially appropriate moniker. The high temperature has been over 100 since we got back Sunday, and I understand it was around 105 a couple days while we were gone. One thing Colorado Springs has over Bakersfield (and Los Angeles, where my parents moved from) is certainly the summer weather. Another is the view. But, hey, we've got Central California coastline just two hours away! Beat that, Colorado!
My parents are moved in and most of the "essentials" have been located amidst the 500+ boxes (not counting furniture) that accompanied them on the move. Me? I'm exhausted as I knew I would be. Besides the 1200 mile drive, rearranging the location of devilishly heavy boxes up and down the basement stairs, and doing such mundane tasks as removing and installing a toilet on Independence Day (there ought to be a law!), I'm still dealing with all the rest of the stuff "life" has thrown my direction.
I keep thinking of things to write about on the blog. Unfortunately, my time is pretty much sucked up by dealing with the multiple "fires" burning around me. To switch metaphors, I told my boss one time that I'm in a period of life where I'm in the batting cage with a pitching machine gone wild. It never runs out of baseballs and it keeps firing them toward me faster and faster. The art of it, I guess, is to try to get wood on the ball, both out of a sense of self-preservation and also pride. If you keep fouling off balls, you get to keep standing in the batter's box.
But for now, just one observation....
It seems that most of the challenges I am facing lately are not of my making. In other words, most of them are coming from decisions others have made and over which I have little input and no control. It doesn't help that I find myself in the midst of this huge paradigm shift that is occurring in the Western World. Life on the suture zone is no picnic! Being the born worrier that I am, I'm having to pry my fingers away from the responsibility that I am assuming for these people and situations, and just do the next thing set before me. Unfortunately, what I am finding is that my fingers have assumed the default position of a death grip.
If you are a praying person, you could pray that God would give me the strength to "let go". Sounds oxymoronic, true? But that is evidently what I need in order to get through all of this.
From my end, blessings to you and yours, and...
Grace and peace,
Owen
P.S. Thanks for the notes, Nina and Shane.
Well, Steven and I made it back to Bako. That's short for Bakersfield, and an especially appropriate moniker. The high temperature has been over 100 since we got back Sunday, and I understand it was around 105 a couple days while we were gone. One thing Colorado Springs has over Bakersfield (and Los Angeles, where my parents moved from) is certainly the summer weather. Another is the view. But, hey, we've got Central California coastline just two hours away! Beat that, Colorado!
My parents are moved in and most of the "essentials" have been located amidst the 500+ boxes (not counting furniture) that accompanied them on the move. Me? I'm exhausted as I knew I would be. Besides the 1200 mile drive, rearranging the location of devilishly heavy boxes up and down the basement stairs, and doing such mundane tasks as removing and installing a toilet on Independence Day (there ought to be a law!), I'm still dealing with all the rest of the stuff "life" has thrown my direction.
I keep thinking of things to write about on the blog. Unfortunately, my time is pretty much sucked up by dealing with the multiple "fires" burning around me. To switch metaphors, I told my boss one time that I'm in a period of life where I'm in the batting cage with a pitching machine gone wild. It never runs out of baseballs and it keeps firing them toward me faster and faster. The art of it, I guess, is to try to get wood on the ball, both out of a sense of self-preservation and also pride. If you keep fouling off balls, you get to keep standing in the batter's box.
But for now, just one observation....
It seems that most of the challenges I am facing lately are not of my making. In other words, most of them are coming from decisions others have made and over which I have little input and no control. It doesn't help that I find myself in the midst of this huge paradigm shift that is occurring in the Western World. Life on the suture zone is no picnic! Being the born worrier that I am, I'm having to pry my fingers away from the responsibility that I am assuming for these people and situations, and just do the next thing set before me. Unfortunately, what I am finding is that my fingers have assumed the default position of a death grip.
If you are a praying person, you could pray that God would give me the strength to "let go". Sounds oxymoronic, true? But that is evidently what I need in order to get through all of this.
From my end, blessings to you and yours, and...
Grace and peace,
Owen
P.S. Thanks for the notes, Nina and Shane.
posted by Owen B. | 6:33 AM
2 Comments:
Hello Owen
I want you to know that you are in my prayers as always. Please know that God is giving us all the strength to empower us along our paths He gives us.
You're a blessing
in His love
Wade
Owen, you did survive the journey you so well wrote about. Remember a lovely day in September '07. when you shared your doubts....JOanna
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