Stuck

We are prisoners. It’s not the cats holding us hostage but the temperatures. And the snow. Granted, we’ve had only 3 inches of snow, and while it is pretty cold, it’s balmy compared to what the mid-west had to deal with in the last week. But part of our preparation to depart was taking care of a few things in the yard, and they are snow covered. We’ve stopped boxing up things as the date of our actual move is still not firm and we need to be able to get around our house in Greeley until then. Thus, our prep work is at a standstill here.

In Evergreen things may also be at a standstill. We haven’t been there since January 27. At that time, between the CDOT snow plows and the contractor’s pickup trucks the upper part of the driveway was as snow packed as any side road in Steamboat Springs. Since then there have been a couple of significant snows. Tomorrow morning (February 9) we’re taking another overnight trip to Evergreen. We’re packing a snow shovel in case we have to dig our way to the house. Again. Then I’ll fire up the orange monster of a snow thrower to see if I can clear things up enough to get the car into the garage. Given that the driveway is 150+ feet of downhill grade, the real effort will be getting the car back up to the street.

Another challenge of our enforced inactivity is the odd situation of living less than a mile from the church that had been central to our lives for 15 years. The leave taking policy of the diocese requires that I neither attend services and events or even visit the premises. We do very much miss the people and the place, and the activity of relocating was to be the great distractor in coping with the change.

In reality, this delay will be all too brief: the vanity will arrive and get installed; we’ll have enough of a thaw to get the last yard work done; the Habitat ReStore will pick up the furniture and items we’re leaving behind and we’ll find a moving company that can take the remaining boxes and furniture on the 85 mile journey to Evergreen.

In the meantime, there are other coming events to look forward to. Next weekend we’re part of a parish weekend at the church I served before Trinity, Christ Church, Denver. This event is led by our friend, Russ Parker, who led a parish weekend for Trinity in 2017. The weekend after that we’re signed up for orientation and training as volunteers at The Wild Animal Sanctuary.

Until then we both need to address the spiritual discipline of paying attention and recognizing that Jesus wants us to engage with Him in each moment of the day. Thinking too far ahead increases the likelihood that we will miss the opportunities to give and receive blessing God is placing under our noses.