For 12 years Nancy and I have been companions, co-parents, co-conspirators, keepers of a rowdy but resilient household. We have not only survived the challenges posed by illness, hard times, and the weight of our own psychic baggage… we have flourished in spite of and because of them. We have learned how to excel in new fields of endeavor, made new friends, and become more deeply connected to each other, even as we become more distinct as individuals. Of course, God isn’t finished with us yet, and we have to reinvent our common life every day. (I say that as an article of faith… in practice, I continue to practice every pathological avoidance strategy… but Nancy hangs in with me, and in the end it is love that abides, even when hope dims and faith falters.)
With my retirement we are facing a new chapter in our life together, or perhaps even a new story altogether. For Nancy, I have always been the “Rector of St. Stephen’s.” For me, Nancy has always been “she-who-is-learning-to-share-her-partner-with-600-parishioners.” It is as if a beloved but persistent relative has just gotten her own apartment after living in our spare bedroom for 12 years. While we relish the prospect of greater freedom, we are also aware that we can no longer use her as an excuse.
At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the tipsy wedding guests were astonished, not that Jesus had turned water into wine (for only the waiters and bartenders knew), but that the host had “saved the best wine until now.” (John 2:10) We have sampled that heady vintage for the past 12 years, and can say along with that same Gospel author, “this was but the first of his signs.”
In other words, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
1 comment:
Congratulations my Friend! Check out this fisherman: http://www.arkive.org/osprey/pandion-haliaetus/video-00.html
Beauty in flight! Love you both.
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