Important People

June 18
Today we spent the day with some of the important people in our lives. And while it wasn’t our good-bye, we all knew that day was coming. For me, it was a rather emotional day as everything has started to seem more real and less like something that might happen someday. I know that in many ways this will be a tough week. We have to say good-bye to people we deeply care about, we have to give our cat to someone else, and we will have to put our dog to sleep. She does not travel well--even with sedatives. She is 12 years old and showing her age. Even so, we would have considered giving her to someone else, except that she gets very distressed when we are not with her. So we have determined that the kindest thing for her, even if not for us, is to celebrate the good life she has had and let her rest in peace. It is not easy to anticipate this, and it brings up memories of other 4-legged furry people we have lost over the years. We are both glad that we will be leaving and not having to spend a long time in this house when she isn’t here.
I still find it amazing that there are so many people that I will miss when I leave here. It’s hard to imagine not seeing them on a regular basis. And it has been truly amazing to be on the receiving end of such generosity and open-heartedness. Everyone wants to make sure we have everything we need; they ask us what they can give us; and they offer us things they have that we might not have thought of. Today we received a power inverter. I didn’t even know what that was when someone offered it to us, and at first we declined, but then we thought about it more and asked a couple of questions. Turns out it is something you connect to your car battery either via the cigarette lighter or the terminals and it turns it into a regular household current. So we will be able to charge our computers as we drive! There’s something I didn’t even really know existed and now I have one! I wouldn’t even have been able to ask for it, but someone cared enough to think about what we might need and to offer it to us. I am grateful for such caring and generosity and I feel lucky to have such people in my life. As excited as I am about what we are doing, saying good-bye will be hard. Endings and beginnings all at the same time. It’s hard. I feel drained tonight. But I will rest, maybe do some reading and crocheting. Tomorrow I will get up and go say good-bye to a couple more people and be happy that I got a chance to share a part of my journey with them. They have all enriched my life.