Packing up your life and overcoming “The Look”

We are in spain and so we thought we would postdate some letters to the blog and backtrack for you....this is from Aug 2010


I have too many pens. Too many lip-gloss containers in weird shades that I would never wear, too much clothing and here I sit helplessly in the sea of it all supposed to sort it out. I am on the floor of our home in Kitchener surrounded by suitcases and well, lip-gloss. My neighbor and dear friend came over to talk and cry and laugh with us one last time on our living room floor with no furniture and for some reason she didn’t want the ‘Essence of Coral’ gloss I so kindly offered.
Saying goodbye to such formative friendships and such a unique neighbourhood community has required a tangible grieving process. From the trivialities of having my last coconut doughnut at Kitchener Market or having to purge my piles of letters and life memorabilia to letting go people who have shaped our early life as a young family.
Then there are the seemingly insurmountable loose-ends to figure out. I can’t answer the doubts and sheer panic that overwhelm me at times, or the biggest difficulty to overcome: “The Look”.
The look people give us when we inform them that we are selling all of our possessions and taking the kids to Europe, biking the Camino de Santiago and hopefully making it to Africa.
“You’re doing what?” Says the Look.
“Why?”
Why? When our neigbourhood is amazing, when Rob’s job was secure, why would we give up my teaching job and Kathryn being accepted into French immersion?
Luckily we have dear friends who don’t give us “The Look”. These friends took us out for dinner before we left and asked Rob what he hoped to find by undertaking this family adventure. Rob paused for a moment and simply said, “I hope to journey with God.”
I believe that this is the heart of what we’re doing and why I can overcome “The look” despite my own better judgment. To be changed by taking a path less travelled is always difficult and always demands that we lift our feed and leave our comforts to find it.
I am praying that after all the “why, what, where and when’s” have been answered by my getting rid of these lip-gloss containers and finding travel insurance that God will show us the “How”.
“God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is He who says, I the Lord have demonstrated my righteousness. I will take you be the hand and guard you.” (Is. 42 vs. 5-6a)