the unexpected...

I am hard pressed to believe where I am tonight. A week ago I was just getting out of Good Friday service, thinking about what to pack for Easter in New Mexico. Again I was thinking about packing tonight. Tom and I are at DIA, despite the snow - the blizzard that made the news in Portland hours and hours ago. It has been a taxing week for everyone! My neighbor wrecked his bike and tore a ligament last night. A garden I work with has hit turnoil to the point of the resignation of its leadership. And for me...well, Tuesday was rough. I was stretched to the max after being out of the office three days last week and again on Monday. I was slammed on Tuesday and ended up running into a number of snags while trying to edit revisions made to the big grant I manage. I was a little past deadline, but with time out of the office and many events, it couldn't be helped. Gratefully, I got to take a moment to breathe with friends. Jennifer, Mary, Sarah, and I spent some QT in a friend's hot tub, soaking away the stress that had been building, unaware of more to come. Tuesday night my dear grandma, godmother, and namesake joined her beloved in heaven! It was unexpected by all, least of all my mother who was at her side just before her heart stopped. A brokenheart from all I can make out is the cause of our grief. It has been a tough week to anticipate returning to Portland and not seeing her at church, or at the kitchen table, or in the glider in the living room. Never again to see her leaning over the counter talking to a long-distance relative on the phone during family gatherings. Never again to hold her hand for grace, to pass her the cards for her deal, to call on Sunday to see how her week has been. To taste her raspeberry whip as I have never been able to mimic. To find a bag of gumdrop cookies under the tree with my name on it. To celebrate our feast day together. It has been a time most heavy for my heart, and for so many hearts. She touched many lives. So tonight Tom and I sit in the airport in the midst of a snowstorm rendering many homebound. Our flight is an hour late at best, hopefully at most. We'll wake in Portland with family, with loved ones who share in our sorrow. But behind my own tears of longing to see her again, there is a sparkle to know they are dancing together, my grandparents, my godparents, my namesake & my birthday boy! And how lucky for them to be together again, in God's glory everlasting!