I suppose one way of looking at losses is like the passing of the seasons. When I was a young married person, my wife wanted me to write her a poem. If you like Taylor Swift or you've been watching the news, you may have heard of the Tortured Poets Department. In this one way, perhaps I was like Taylor in that I did not find poetry as easy to write when I wasn't a "tortured poet."
Nonetheless, my wife got a poem for her birthday, which is approaching once again. Don't get your hopes up, Honey! Somehow we both lost that 20-something poem along the way, but we still remember the first line: "Where will we be when you are 81 and I am 83?" And I guess after all these years, we still don't know. But the assumption was that it would be the winter season of our lives, which places 65 and 67 solidly in autumn, I think.
So we're still coming alongside people, but the relationships are closer at hand, and our resilience is somewhat lessened. Still, as I once said when we thought I might lose my international job, we could always work at the grocery store. She could be a checker since she's good at numbers and I could be a bagger, since I'm good at packing, and there would be people right there who would need love and care. Fortunately we haven't needed to do that so far!
So when we haven't been dealing with health, we've gotten to hang out with Laura's mom, our grandkids (5 now!), and mainly people here in Colorado Springs. And while we don't work at the stores, we still drop by! Laura and her buddies have kept investing in international women here in the community. I've also taught a couple Sunday School lessons and led a few more small groups, which was ostensibly what I was so busy prepping for back in the days when I wrote that poem.
There's also a lot of people we think about coming alongside, but we don't make it, or if we do, it's a lot less than we can imagine doing. I don't suppose that is particularly unique to us. People as introspective as we are, though, can spend a lot of time thinking about it and judge our actual efforts as somewhat lacking.
Is this what it's like to grow old? Or has life always been like this? And where will we be when she is 81 and I am 83? Meanwhile Laura's mom will be 92 within a month! Happy Birthday, Martha.
So I got a cold, but Laura got Covid. I had a sore ankle joint, but Laura is seeing an orthopedist about her shoulder. I need a tooth cleaning, but Laura just got a root canal. Does this mean I'm winning? I think I'll take a nap.
The seasons of life are passing and we're walking with a little less vigor, but we're still alive, just kicking a little less energetically. And as you can see, writing less frequent email updates and perhaps saying less as well.
One last story: When Joey and Laura had baby Corrie, who's doing well as are they, we headed up to their house and I skipped out on teaching a Sunday School lesson. Our coordinator said, "Fine, but will you teach an Easter lesson on Palm Sunday the next week?"
What do you say about Easter to people who've mostly been going to church and Sunday School for more than fifty years? As some of you know, I find it very difficult to say the same thing twice, much less….
I told them that no one saw the resurrection of Jesus coming—not then and not now, but we've become so used to it that we almost feel like it was obvious. On the contrary, I think it surprised pretty much everyone, believer or skeptic then, and it probably still should now. If you're really interested, I could send you my teaching slides. But hopefully at least no one will ask me to teach about Easter again, because then what would I say?!
Thanks for listening and see you later! Steve and Laura
Steve and Laura Spinella
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