The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative

I wrote my husband a note the other day to say I felt as if we were waking from a long sleep and, in a mix of metaphors, that it was time to start dreaming again. Perhaps that sounds crazy for two 50-year-olds, but I saw confirmation in Oswald's words today.

The Nineties were a bit of a wild ride for Frank and me:

1990 -- Ours sons were born, one in February, one in October.
1991 -- My mom died.
1992 -- We opened a restaurant with our best friends' parents.
1993 -- Frank's dad died. We lost our restaurant; the partnership failed.
1994 -- Our first daughter was born, and we moved halfway across the country.
1995 -- Frank changed jobs. We moved again.
1996 -- We bought a house.
1997 -- Our youngest daughter was born. Frank changed jobs. We moved again.
1998 -- I had a mini-meltdown and spent two weeks as an outpatient at a psychiatric clinic.
1999 -- Frank changed jobs. We moved again. But this time we stayed put. We have been in Spokane, Washington for almost 11 years.

Beginning in 1995, we homeschooled our children. The boys transferred to public high school in 2004 and 2005, the girls, public middle school in 2006 and 2009.

Somewhere in the midst of the births and the deaths and the moves, Frank and I moved into survival mode. Please don't misunderstand. That decade included some of the best times of our lives -- the births of our children, their first words, chef and Cinderella and spaceman parties, long hikes in the rain forest. We discovered the Oregon Coast as a family. For one year, we lived three blocks from the beach. We walked on it almost every day -- in rain and wind, searching for agates, as well as in sun and blue sky, building sand castles. No, it wasn't that the times were bad, but rather that Frank and I were holding on for dear life and our personal dreams seemed like relics of the distant past. Now that things are not moving at such breakneck speed (our boys are in college; our girls in full-time public school), we have the opportunity to look about us a bit.

"We all have any number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power to make them real. We cannot do the things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead . . . God has come to say, 'Arise from the dead'" -- Oswald.

Life is not over. "We are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing."

Barbara