One of our unwitting teachers here, Martha Constante, has a motto--"siempre adelante," meaning always keep moving forward, no matter what has knocked you back. I am adopting it, too. The house sale continues on, with the stellar performance of our realtor who has in one weekend a) rewired a problematic light on our back porch, contacted the buyer's lawyer and realtor with corrected information (their inspector was incompetent), contacted ComEd to urge them to finish their three year-old pole-setting project and wrangled everyone around into the position to sign the papers and move forward on the sale. Bless you, Osh! The only remaining hurdle is the buyer's need to get a mortgage loan, and that is out of our hands completely. We simply have to trust and keep "moving forward."
We continue on with our volunteer work here, offering whatever we have to the development of fair trade here in Ecuador, even though sometimes we feel that's little enough, or not what's needed or wanted, or whatever. Or maybe it's only I who feel that way. It doesn't matter, what I have I will give, and surely there will be, in God's economy, someone who needs it. It certainly worked that way with furniture two weeks ago! We will be here until early October, doing this. Afterward, we will sell our fair trade crafts at church bazaars until Christmas, and after that, what? We don't know, but we will keep moving forward.
Trust has become a big theme for us, and I am constantly reminded how we cannot tell when events are happening around us whether they will benefit or harm us. Things that may seem to be good can just as likely turn out very badly. The opposite is also true. All we can do is offer God the precious gift of our trust and do what's in front of us with great love and attention. In the midst of all of this, there are tiny, tiny micro-events that hold so much significance, they are the seeds of the future, and we plant them mostly unconsciously. All of that said, my dear friend Charlotte used to always say, "I don't know anything else for sure, but I do know that underneath are the everlasting arms." We have been so blessed that even all this uncertainty about next steps, etc. doesn't feel threatening. We are on course, on time and on point in God's view of things. We are urged to "enjoy the ride," because it is so very short.
Today Vincent and I were remembering the first months of our friendship, when all we ignorant souls noticed was how very much we liked each other. Gratitude repeats the phrase, 27 years later. Many things have happened that tested our little boat to the utmost. For the moment we are in calm water. But I can honestly say, there's no other boat I would rather be in than ours, even during the times when I am NOT aware that God's arms are underneath us.
Just a small thing--it was really lovely that Osh did all his communicating with us via his cell phone, so I got to see once more our beautiful home and the sheltering trees in the backyard that have given us so much delight. He was showing me the temporary electric connections on our house and our two neighbors'--but what I saw was beauty and peace and the gift that our lives together have been.
Tomorrow? We will continue on.
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