Time’s Decision
This weekend we celebrated my aunt and uncle’s 62nd wedding anniversary. The number suggests their relative ages; declining health and mental challenges kept the festivities joyful but short.
With prevailing divorce rates roughly between 20-50% [1] it would be lovely to heap plaudits on the success of such wedded bliss but that would not be truthful. My aunt and uncle’s marriage has not been easy.
Intelligent, accomplished but opinionated people don’t necessarily get along well when streaks of stubbornness and exactitude colour communications. It’s difficult to give way and step outside attitudes and positions steeped in sometimes challenging upbringings. With childhoods threaded with poverty and neglect for one and early illness causing years of separation from family for the other, the roots of survival are complex.
Half serious my uncle summed the length of their married co-existence with the ability to “tolerate the antagonism.” We all smiled having borne witness to the couple’s dynamics.
But love does not always look loving. Often, love is a decision.
The Winds of Decision
And that’s where I’ve arrived… at a decision. The winds of time have blown out, the tempest travelling me to a fresh shore. It’s time to look at the landscape, take an accounting and plot a direction. After two years I haven’t landed where I expected; time to re-calibrate and course-correct.
I love to write and in earnest it began four or five years ago. Writing now weaves into who I am and what God calls me to do. As part of that journey the blog’s purpose was to build bridges–between heart and heaven–to connect our hearts to God and each other through stories and reflections. I hope in a measure I have achieved this goal.
The second goal was to build a social media platform with a readership to support literary representation bids for two unpublished books. Achieved are the social media and readership platforms, but the pitches for literary representation fell by the wayside with not enough time to do all.
The unpublished stories call. I must harness resources and do what I can for the voices that dared and trusted me to write.
Love’s Decision
By now you know where I am going. That’s not to say I won’t write and I won’t post. I will but not on schedule, not every second week on Sunday afternoons at two pm.
Thank you for reading my blog, for your comments, support and encouragement… for bridging your heart to mine.
This is not farewell, but adieu. It’s a “go with God” blessing dear and cherished Readers.
A Time for Everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace…14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.
[1] Statistics Canada’s dated data cites divorce rates in 2003 varied across Canada: highest in Quebec at 49.7% and lowest in Newfoundland & Labrador at 17.1%.
Dear Caroline,
I will greatly miss your inspiring blogs however I remember why you did it and that you really would like to publish. All the best and God bless all your future endeavors.
Lynn
Hello Lynne,
Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Carolin
I wil miss your posts, but your heart is talking to you and you really need to do this. Good luck, and I hope you find time. When you can I will be happy to read your post. The post about your Uncle and Aunt was so awesome. Love, I believe is when your best friend is by your side through thick and thin. Sometimes you argue, some times you down right disagree. But in the end when we can see the other point of view it is like a light goes on. Always talk to one other even if it is hard. Then you see it was not as hard as you thought it would be. Please let us know how you are making out with your book.
Hello Kim,
Such kind well wishes and wisdom. Thank you.
If I make strides on this next leg I will gladly share the news and keep you posted.
Until then God bless and I hope you and the family remain well.
Carolin