NOTHING TO SAY? REALLY?

I don’t know how people who write for a living do it.  I love to write, but will go weeks, sometimes even months, without having anything to say.  You’d think that with a move, from northeastern New Jersey, to southwest Florida, then to central Florida, all in the span of the last eight months, I’d have plenty of real life fodder for a blog.  You’d think. . . .  how about if I just ramble and see where it leads?

I can’t believe how long I resisted moving to Florida.  Jim would have gone as soon as he retired, years ago now.  I had my reasons for not wanting to go, EVER:  It’s hot, how will I manage?  What about leaving friends and family?  What about the absence of a change of seasons?  What about leaving our church family where we feel loved and “home”?  

Then Jim said, “What about a 55+ community?”  A “last straw” for me! I dug in my heels. “I don’t want to live with a bunch of old people,” said the nearly 70 year old woman who stared back at me from the mirror every morning!  

For quite some time I argued with myself (with much grumpiness and imagined foot stomping) over all things Florida and old people.  I asked the Lord to soften my heart if Florida was in His plan for us.  Eventually, I began to stop thinking of ME and start thinking of JIM, who worked hard and faithfully for 50 years with the same company to take care of us.  Shouldn’t I think of what makes him happy and not just what makes me happy?  Lo and behold, over the next couple of years, I discovered that I had made a complete about face in my thinking!  (Thank You, Lord!)  Suddenly it was, “Florida, here we come!”

But that wasn’t all.  A year ago we began looking at 55+ communities and bought a house in one!!  I’m still pinching myself.  We live in a lovely community with lots of friendly people – older and younger – than us.  They do things like play tennis, and pickle ball.  They swim and bike and fish and play golf.  I find that I’m rediscovering myself!

In our first house in New Jersey, we had this lovely sun room.  I filled it with plants and loved to take care of them and watch them thrive.  Our second house in Bergen County didn’t have a lot of natural light, so my gardening days were behind me.  Here, we have a community garden where I have a little garden bed and have started tomatoes and peppers.  How fun!  I plan to join the photography club and maybe do some crocheting with the sewing club too.  Then there are movie nights, ballroom dancing, an indoor pool, oh, and the gym.  I still hate it, but I go.

We’re surrounded by lakes where there is an abundance of waterfowl, including sandhill cranes, one of the largest birds in the world, with a 7 foot wing span!  I happened upon one of these majestic creatures the week we moved in.  Standing nearly to my chest, two of them were strolling down our sidewalk, and just for my entertainment, began squawking at me!  Now I can see them nesting in the nearby lake and am so excited to see adults and babies strolling around the grounds.

Part of what helped make the transition easier was that our youngest daughter and her family moved down just a few months ahead of us.  They have settled about 16 miles away, so we can have dinner together or get together at one of our homes for a barbeque, or go to Disney.  Having family here has helped us all through this time when we haven’t yet made friends.

Our church search continues.  We were surprised, here in the Bible belt, that it would take us so long to find a church that was not just doctrinally sound, with good preaching and an emphasis on the Bible, but also a place we might call “home”.  We searched the internet, listened to sermons from websites, checked our GPS to see how far they were, visited some.  We worshiped to the accompaniment of rock music, old hymns with a country twang, and a blend of hymns and praise choruses.  We had one awful experience of not only NOT being welcomed, but feeling decidedly unwelcomed – and survived!  

We thought we had found a church.  We even attended a coffee with the pastor to find out more.  It had all the components we were looking for, but neither of us felt like it was “home”.  Then someone told us about another church nearby.  We knew the denomination was more liberal, and so had excluded it from our search.  Then we heard the congregation had a parting of the ways with its denomination, so we decided to give it a try after all.  And we liked it.  It’s early to say, but we’ll definitely go back.  It just might become “home”.

Today was a glorious, spring like day.  During my quiet time I was thanking the Lord for the blessing of living in such a beautiful location, for a winter that feels a lot like spring back in New Jersey, for changing my mind about a move and helping me to love the place where I’m planted.

We’re still in transition (and haven’t yet experienced an entire Florida summer), but this new setting begins to feel more like home.  It took me about four years to do it, but I’m glad we made the move.