Ah, the blessing of being back home, where the daffodils are finally blooming and the red-winged blackbirds call!
I think he’s happy to be back home for the summer!
Life is such a journey!
Wonderful to go, yet somehow even sweeter to return! I think there’s a little bit of Bilbo Baggins in most of us, with increasing desires for home and hearth as we age. Yet, adventures (even the hard ones) help us on our pilgrimage of grace, don’t you suppose?
After a couple of weeks trying to untangle our feet and get them back on the ground, I find there’s a side of me that wants to rush right into sharing all the stories about what I learned during the last couple of months in the Southwest.
The other side of me (left brain?) says, “But you haven’t even finished telling about your trip through the Southeast from last spring!” True enough! “Let’s be organized about this!” This time last year I was staring wide-eyed with wonder at the beauty of the Atlantic!
There’s even a third voice that says, “Aren’t you tired of writing? Don’t you think people are tired of listening? Why do you want to share stories at all? Why don’t you grow up and do something more useful with your life?” Hmmmm. Maybe you’re right. Mother Teresa didn’t spend much time sight-seeing . . .
I’m just listening through Will Hurd’s American Reboot, and after losing an election when he was 32, he asked 75 people what they recommended for him moving forward. 74 of them gave advice that didn’t satisfy, but a former high school teacher gave him an answer that set his heart on fire: “Do something hard. Do something that’s going to make a positive difference in the world.” He went for it, and from 2019-2021, Will Hurd was the only (half) African-American Republican in the House of Representatives (representing a predominantly Latino population to boot). During his tenure, he was able to get 17 pieces of legislation signed into law! That’s an amazing record, and I’m sure we’ll hear more from him in years to come. (It’s an excellent book so far, BTW!)
I’m no politician, but I love to tell stories. It’s the staff in my hand (Ex. 4:2). That’s where all my passion and drive come together. It’s hard to tell if I’m having much of a positive impact, but I can tell it’s challenging! It pushes me to pray, to think, to research, to reach out and share the blessings God has given me. What hath God wrought? What hath God allowed me to experience of what He’s wrought?!
I may not be able to move mountains, but I can testify to the greatness and glory of the God who caused them to erupt out of the earth. “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2).
I can’t sing like a bird, but I can sing out the goodness of our God, who cares for even the smallest sparrow that falls from the sky. How do I know? Because I’ve experienced his love and care in my life, and I know He loves every person on earth! “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalm 34:3).
Usually, on April 8 I celebrate Summer Setting‘s anniversary. This year marked the end of year 14 and the beginning of year 15. I read somewhere that anyone who wants to write shouldn’t even try to sell a book until they’ve written 500,000 words. I’d written more than that just in letters home to my parents when the kids were growing up. My mom kept and eventually returned all the letters to me, and I compiled them into The Armstrong Archives, a record of the shenanigans and joys of family life apparently so embarrassing to my kids in their early adulthood that they put a stop to my trying to share the stories in public! 🙂
So, where Lord, shall I go from here? I think maybe I’ll stay in Grand Rapids but journey in my writing back to Magnolia Plantation, near Charleston, South Carolina, which is where I left off last spring when some of our kids came to spend the summer with us and ended my mental meanderings.
So, pardon me while I finish unpacking and dry off my wings, but by next Tuesday I hope to be teleported back in time to the sunny South and share what I learned about anhingas. They’re pretty cool birds!
How about you? Do you have a passion and a purpose? If you’re in the midst of school or rearing a family, that IS your calling! May I encourage you to work patiently and not give up? (I mean, it might be time for a job change, but it’s never time for a spouse or family change!) If you’ve retired, have you found a compelling calling? I hope so! The world is full of opportunities and needs. God has something just for you! Can you hear Him calling?
“Obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24).
Over the past few months, we’ve experienced some epic changes, not only around our home, but in our family and at Alan’s office. I’ll work backwards, since the first epic change occurred at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, where Alan works. After months of intensive planning and preparation, the entire hospital system (which is now one of the largest free-standing psychiatric hospitals in the U.S.) switched over their medical records to Epic Systems Corporation, a software company that holds the records for some 64% of all the patients in America. It was truly an “Epic” change…hugely expensive, hugely difficult, but also hopefully hugely helpful in better caring for their patients. 
The second (although tiny) epic change was the addition of a new baby in our family! Little Marius joined Michael and Grace’s family at their villa in Italy in July. I was blessed to be with them during this precious time, made particularly epic for me because I ended up caring for their four older children solo for a few days…a first for me in my 12-year grandma-ing career. Grace ended up back in the hospital for several days (she is fine now), and in Italy they wouldn’t allow the baby to stay unless Michael also stayed to care for him! 
The last epic change I’ll report (although there are still more) is happening as I write: the addition of a new sun room onto our home. Talk about digging and grubbing in the dirt! The view out the window is thrilling and intimidating…so much so that we gave up an opportunity to have our son Jon’s family visit for fear of their three little girls getting inadvertently injured by falling into the pit or being run over by some monstrous machine. One day there was such a thunderous impact from workers removing concrete abutments that a music box fell off the mantle inside! Lots of jolts and jars…concrete and mud sprayed all over our music gear in the basement when a plastic drape fell, etc! 
Beyond these changes for us, we have two close friends who are in epic battles with cancer right now…one friend who was in the hospital for three weeks, and another couple who needed to move from their (his) home of 60 years into a condo. It feels a little the earth is quaking under my feet, not just in my home, but in my heart!
How are you doing? Are you also experiencing epic changes in your life? 
If so, may I comfort you with this prayer by Henri J.M. Nouwen? “Dear Lord, Today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: ‘It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.’ You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and down in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life, by your love I am sustained, and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love. . . .” 
“O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let me know there is ebb and flow but the sea remains the sea. Amen.” (—from A Cry for Mercy).
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(I just spent 5 weeks in Europe, partly in Michael and Grace’s “castle in a cave,” and partly on a 3-week cruise of the North Sea, Iceland, and Norway. Hopefully, next week I’ll start recounting tales from these wonderful weeks of adventure! Meanwhile, God bless you! I pray for everyone who reads my blogs, that you will find all your needs met in God, our heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord!)
Summer Setting 