One of my earlier memories is driving from California to Texas in a Falcon (i.e. small) station wagon pulling a stake trailer loaded with my family's household goods. My parents had made the radical decision to leave nuclear engineering and California (within an hour of both sets of grandparents) so my dad could instead go to graduate school in Bible and theology with the goal of transitioning into a ministry career. It was about 2000 miles, so maybe 40 hours of driving. Mom was pregnant and I was the oldest of three, just turning 6. The old stake trailer behind us was loaded past the stakes in a spectacular mound with my mom's favorite rocking chair lashed upside down on the very top. Half the time the little station wagon had the back seats folded down and layered with suitcases and blankets, making a platform on which we could lay down, but not sit up. The journey seemed to last forever--1962 was pre-interstate highway and there were high mountain passes. Route 66 was loaded with trucks on two lane roads and studded with very marginal small motor hotels--where you can pull up outside your room if you can't drive any further and must spend the night as cheaply as possible. Long story short--we weren't there yet, and we had a very limited idea of what "there" would be like when we arrived. It was definitely hot and automotive air conditioning was not yet a thing, at least in that Falcon. Prominently featured along the way with three kids under 6--"Can you wait another fifteen minutes?" Looking back, I feel the worst for my pregnant mom.
For some reason COVID-19 and 2020 make me remember this story, when the journey felt like it would go on forever. Will this be the best time ever, the interminable wait, or the wasted year? I really don't know. I do know that when we got to Texas back in 1962, there was more hardship waiting for my family. Was it worth it? I once would have answered, "For sure!" Now I look back knowing that there were other stories that never happened because we embarked on that journey. Some might have been better. Some might have been worse. I do know that my parents ended up doing a better job than many in successfully passing their core values on to their kids. Since we now range from 63 to 57 years old, I can say that with some confidence. But there are certainly many ways of viewing life and deciding what matters. I do know that is the journey that was and life went on for us from there.
So today, I watch with interest as life goes on from here. Six months ago no one I knew expected a pandemic to sweep the world. Some I know still doubt it today! (That would definitely NOT include my sister in Spain.)
For our ministry, many things we were doing and planned to do have not happened. But we have done more on skype, zoom, Google meet, et al than we ever anticipated, and more recently we've also used our backyard and a few other outdoor places for face to face meetings. I don't even know when I will travel again, especially internationally.
For our family, mostly we have continued, with adjustments, in our routines. Everyone who works has done at least some working from home, and most of us have only worked from home since things shut down here in Colorado. Delightfully, our kids all live in Colorado, mostly quite close. Serendipitously, Colorado is often pleasant outdoors and we do not live in a crowded situation.
If we are always focused on our destinations, I think we can miss a lot in our journeys. So each day, I am trying to ask anew, "How can this day be the best day possible?"--even when things go awry, and a) things don't go as planned, b) there is pain, frustration, and/or fear along the way, or even c) it's not a good day at all. And who knows what is yet ahead? Apparently we can still be surprised. We're not there yet, and we may not even be going where we thought.
In him who keeps us, Steve and Laura
PS Do you read this any differently than you would have six months ago? "The rest of humanity, who had not been killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so that they did not stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk about. Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or of their stealing. Revelation 9:20-21 (NET)"
Steve and Laura Spinella
US: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920
mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Steve cell 719.355.4809, Laura cell 832.755.4261
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@gmail.com>
<spinella@alumni.rice.edu> <lauraspinella@gmail.com>
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