A Book Review Of Life

I finished my book this morning. I read until 4 AM, when I was finally able to pass out from exhaustion in between the beeping of the timers set all over the house to make sure we didn't miss a single dose of eye drops. I was wide awake again at 7 and finished the book before 9 AM...less than 12 hours after I began reading.

That is what I like about the Sisterchicks books. They are a casual read that do not take a lot of energy to enjoy. Great to throw in your beach bag or in your getaway suitcase. The characters are enjoyable but not so complicated that you are constantly having to read between the lines lest you miss something. Yet they cause you to catch your breath at the least likely moments with a tear or a revelation.

The Prologue from 'Sisterchicks Down Under' led me to believe that this was just what the doctor ordered for me at this moment in my life. The story is written from the point of view of a 45 year old woman named Kathleen living in southern California. In the Prologue she compares her life with her husband as "riding on the overly-committed-to-the-schedule freight train". Sounds very familiar around here!

Kathleen's husband is offered a three month job in New Zealand and they decide to go.

The following quote struck a chord in my heart:
"I'd thought through every detail and confidently arrived at the airport with everything I needed. Everything that is, except one item I hadn't tucked in my suitcases or sent ahead in the boxes. I didn't pack a single friend. After spending most of my life in the same city, same church and same circles, I suddenly was minus my built-in community of friends."

What followed was a sweet story of a friendship between two women who had grown up near each other with shared experiences, but who did not meet until they were both half way around the world. Their relationship blossoms in the way that only women can understand as they help each other to see their real potential through the eyes of a new friend and the extravagant love of God.

I closed the book this morning thinking...what a sweet story, but not what I had expected. There were no lightening bolt revelations. No 'aha' moments for this soon to be 45 year mother perched on the edge of a soon to be empty nest who definitely has spent too much time on the overly-committed-to-the-schedule freight train called life.

But then, I got to thinking...

I began remembering when I had left everything familiar to me to follow my husband to Texas for a six month long assignment that has lasted for 21 years now. Me, a small town girl with no desires to ever get out...just to settle down and raise my family in the shadows of the rest of my relatives. Me, a twenty-something year old girl from a one-traffic-light town of less than 3,000 people...now transplanted to the fourth largest city in the good ole' US of A. And like Kathleen, I thought I had packed everything I needed for a six month stay in this 'foreign land' only to soon discover that there are some things that can't be packed in a bag or a box. Friends.

The first year that we were here, I spent a lot of time traveling back home with the two girls. Since Jim's six months had been stretched a little longer and we were unsure of when it would end...we decided that I would return home to give birth to Bri just to be on the safe side. At three days old, we packed her and her sisters in the car to return to Texas once again. Other than another short stay to help care for my grandmother, I have been here ever since.

Once I adjusted to the reality that Texas was not just a stop-over for us and that we would be here awhile...the Lord brought new friends into my life. Friends who didn't know my story unless I chose to tell them. Friends who took me at face value and helped me to see the potential in myself that I had never realized existed in the 'familiar' lenses of my family and friends back home.

As I was reminded this morning:
Some people come into our lives for a reason,
Some come for a season,
And some come to stay.

I have been blessed with some of each since arriving in Texas. I have met many wonderful women who, though we were connected for a very short time, taught me deep and powerful lessons on what it truly means to be a woman after God's own heart. Some of those lessons were by example and some were learned with bandaged knees, but each is still precious to me. Other women have come into my life for a longer period of time...yet the season came to end, oftentimes too early for my taste (like summer vacation for a child). I shared life journeys with them and they with me. Some I met in churches and some though secular activities with our children/spouses. I still think of each of them, some more often than others...but all of them with a smile on my face and a slight tear in my eye. And finally, thankfully, the Lord has sent some friends to come and stay. (Not always physically, but these are the friends that you can call from halfway across the county and pick up where you last left off.) These are the friends who talk me down off the cliff when my life is going crazy or who listen as I cry out in pain or disappointment. These are the friends who celebrate my successes and keep me grounded because they know me...for real...the good, the bad and the ugly...yet they love me anyway. (You know who you are!)

Even though at first I didn't think that Kathleen (from 'Sisterchicks') and I had much in common other than an age and a too busy schedule...I have come to realize this afternoon that we do.

"Looking back, I now see how unnatural it was to change a well-established migratory route in the middle of life and expect my wings to start flapping in rhythm as soon as I took the free fall. It shouldn't have been such a surprise that I fell so hard. After all, everything in my world had flip-flopped." (from the Prologue)

This time, I am not hundreds of miles away from everyone I know...only about 45 from those who shared the last 20 years with me. Yet, I am having a hard time getting these middle aged wings to flap in my new "migratory route". I have no sense of community here, no church home (our own fault), no familiar faces when I enter a local business. But I know it all comes with time. I will catch on to the new rhythm one day and it will catch me by surprise just like it did in Houston. I will walk into a place of business or a sanctuary and run into an acquaintance, share a smile and some small talk and next thing you know more than just our house will feel like I'm home again.