So this post will just have to be naked.
I just flew back from a weekend in Maryland. It's where I grew up for most of my natural born life and it's where my heart occasionally goes when something from the midwest reminds me of something from the east coast. Maryland.
The reason for my visit was to help my mother sell some of her belongings so she can move south and start fresh. The little girl in me wishes that my parents' marriage could've lasted forever, but due to circumstances beyond our understanding, that's not the case.
I brought my camera to Maryland intending to take hundreds of pictures of my family home, intending to document the little nooks and niches that made for our playground. In "its day", the house showed very well. It had vines on the front of it that climbed romantically up the portico face. It had big spaces for those who needed to entertain larger crowds; it had smaller places for those needing to retreat for some solace.
But when a house is stripped of its personality... the people in it, the furniture, the vines, the laughter... it's not a home anymore. It's just bricks and wood.
So I didn't take one picture. Not one. I let the heart keep its memories the way they were.
When I returned home to Chicago, there was a message for me that the lumberyard had the cedar for my pergola ready. It's odd to be building up my family and my home while my past is experiencing the opposite.
By God's grace, I will build up this home. Not just physically. But build up the people in it... with kindness and good food... with truth and laughter... with creativity and joy.
"There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven... A time to tear down and a time to build up."
Ecclesiastes, The Bible
