Sorting

Traveling is not my favorite thing to do. Perhaps it is the United Airlines stand-by system that does me in. Each time I leave for the airport butterflies enter my stomach as there is no certainty that I'm going anywhere at all, besides the airport itself. One has to have some spirit of adventure to handle this process. As I grow older I seem to have less and less of it. At any rate on Tuesday evening I began my journey to Salt Lake to meet up with my sister Maryanne. Two late flights to Salt Lake looked promising. I can't imagine why they schedule such late arrivals; it doesn't seem like a prosperous schedule at all. I DID make it on of those flights. That is the good news. The bad news is that both were delayed, making my arrival at the Salt Lake Airport 12:30 AM! My poor brother-in-law, Bob, was there to pick me up without complaint.

Maryanne and I drove to Cedaredge from Salt Lake on Wednesday. It was a lovely drive and I enjoyed a visit with Maryanne that we have not had for three years. The days following have been full of sorting and disposing of the many possessions of my lovely Mother, who saved absolutely everything she ever received. There it all was, papers and mail from years ago, treasures of all sorts that she inherited and received from friends, all piled up in fruit boxes in her garage and behind room. Dirt and general vermin filled the cracks and crevices throughout. But we piled through and managed to dispose of an impressive amount. At least we were impressed. We ended each day covered in filth and grime, but warm with the notion that we were making progress. We enter this week with plans to work inside the house. It's a much cleaner place to be and is filled with family records of all sorts. It is fascinating and frustrating all at the same time. As much progress as we feel we are making, there are piles more to go. One trip definitely will not do the job.

I'm having trouble sleeping here. Perhaps it is the unresolved thoughts about Mom that keep sleep from me. I can't put a clear conclusion on it but I feel a general discontent with being here. I guess I miss my mom and her lively presence. The place is empty without her. It doesn't feel quite right to go through all her things and dispose of them in some way or another. She would not have it in life so I suppose there are some residual feelings in my heart that she may not like it now either. Yet it must be done. I suppose I have my own feelings to sort out as well as her stuff. I also suppose that it will all resolve itself with time.

We've had little in the way of company since we've been here. That has been a blessing. But on Sunday our friend, Tracy Munson, came for a visit. Sometimes conversation can take a magical turn. Our small talk with Tracy turned into a lively conversation about developing talents, using life productively and joyfully and making sense of our journey by adding a meaningful spiritual dimension to it. With such conversations, the Spirit of the Lord enters and warms all. It happened with
our conversation with Tracy. At these times the joy of intimacy invades and rewards, making interaction with friends so rewarding. It was so for us last night.

Today we address the challenge of the house once again.

Pictures: Top is a picture taken by my nephew, Mark, of Mom's mail box, with her driveway and home in the background. Middle you see the trash we accumulated from the room above and the garage. Bottom picture is of the room behind Mom's garage. We began with little room to even move around and quit with lots of moving around space. The picture doesn't do justice to our accomplishment!