It’s been over three years since I posted on this site.  It was shortly after my last post that events were set in motion that totally changed my life.  A visit to LA led to a change in jobs for Pete, led to a move to LA and life in a giant metropolis instead of on a peaceful farm.  Of course that is one single sentence which doesn’t begin to tell the story of the chaos and uprooting involved in such changes.  But that’s all behind us now.  

It was so easy to blog when we were on the farm.  There were always so many interesting things happening, so many evidences of God’s creativity in the beauty, peace and the natural world surrounding us.  In the last couple of years, in the absence of that intimate connection with nature, I’ve had to remind myself over and over “God made California, too!”  Of course there are all kinds of beautiful and amazing things in California.  It’s just that, crammed in with about 20 million other people in the LA basin, I feel so widely removed from the daily contact with nature.  I am continually confronted with noise, concrete, traffic and the sounds of other people living within a few feet of me.  Every time the neighbor sneezes, we hear it.  The neighbors moving in behind us today are separated from us by a thin wall of concrete and the sounds echo between the houses and penetrate into our open windows.  They speak a foreign language which is loud and tonal, creating a new and strange backdrop to my life.  

I’ve gone through many stages in adjusting to this new life.  Once again I’ve learned that every place you live has it’s good and bad sides and you can either focus on the bad things and be miserable or focus on the good things and be happy.  The people we’ve met and grown to love here have filled my life in a new way and I have been so enriched and blessed by them.  Not having animals or a yard or a garden means I spend a lot more time doing creative things inside the house like sewing.  I’ve learned and grown through contact with creative people, having time to experiment and create.  I’ve also cherished the fact that I’ve had immeasurably more time to study the Word of God.  

Looking back at my past posts made me homesick once again for the farm and our life there.  Our goal is to return there after retirement and end our days in that setting.  But for now I am thankful for the blessings of being with our kids and grandkids here in CA.  Life is full of surprising twists and turns and there are times I can’t believe that we are where we are.  I’m resolved to chronicle this chapter of life here on this site.  Perhaps one day looking back at these posts will make me homesick for California and the life we had here.