...versus what I meant.
Last Saturday at Handmaidens meeting, some folks were suggesting that I ought to make the trek back for Handmaidens meetings once a month, from Louisville.
I said, rather vehemently I think, something to the effect of "No, I can't come back! Let me go!"
I know what was being said was an expression of love. I feel loved, that was wonderful. What I meant by that, is that when we move, as hard as it is to say goodbye and to "let go", we really need to firmly plant ourselves in our new parish.
This does not mean we won't show up at St. Athanasius now and again. We fully plan to do so. We plan to come back for baptisms and such, for sure.
St. Athanasius will always be the place where we became Orthodox Christians, and for that reason will always be "home" in the sense that one might "go home" to Grandma's house for a special occasion or whatnot. It's our launch pad.
But we also need to find a new home at St. Michael's.
I did not mean, by what I said to in any way reject my dear sisters and brothers at St. Athanasius. Not at all. I get a big lump in my throat and gut just thinking about saying goodbye. I can barely even picture our nave with everyone gathered and the icons and the choir and the prayers ascending without wanting to cry.
I have a hard time imagining what it will be like to make our home outside of the OCA, with a new bishop and a new priest. These are big changes.
And our decision to move to Louisville has nothing to do with any form of rejection of our Church family, but rather it is necessary for the survival of our biological family. Louisville is where God has provided work for Wes, and for that we are grateful. The past two years have been very hard, wearing and wearying, on us, what with Wes driving to and from Louisville every day. He's tired. I'm tired. The kids are tired. Most nights we don't have family dinner and he usually rolls through the door in time for evening prayers at 8:30 or so-if we're lucky. Not the way we want our family life to go.
So, dear blog-readers-who-go-to-St.-Athanasius , please know that we WILL show up from time to time, and we WILL keep in touch and we DO still love all of you and we WILL keep receiving the bulletin and the prayer list (and keep praying for you). Our cell phones will still be 859, so not long distance. And I'll still be blogging, for what it's worth.
And we'll keep our noses plastered to the wall on facebook, too.
I love you all so much and I'm sorry if I caused offense.
Last Saturday at Handmaidens meeting, some folks were suggesting that I ought to make the trek back for Handmaidens meetings once a month, from Louisville.
I said, rather vehemently I think, something to the effect of "No, I can't come back! Let me go!"
I know what was being said was an expression of love. I feel loved, that was wonderful. What I meant by that, is that when we move, as hard as it is to say goodbye and to "let go", we really need to firmly plant ourselves in our new parish.
This does not mean we won't show up at St. Athanasius now and again. We fully plan to do so. We plan to come back for baptisms and such, for sure.
St. Athanasius will always be the place where we became Orthodox Christians, and for that reason will always be "home" in the sense that one might "go home" to Grandma's house for a special occasion or whatnot. It's our launch pad.
But we also need to find a new home at St. Michael's.
I did not mean, by what I said to in any way reject my dear sisters and brothers at St. Athanasius. Not at all. I get a big lump in my throat and gut just thinking about saying goodbye. I can barely even picture our nave with everyone gathered and the icons and the choir and the prayers ascending without wanting to cry.
I have a hard time imagining what it will be like to make our home outside of the OCA, with a new bishop and a new priest. These are big changes.
And our decision to move to Louisville has nothing to do with any form of rejection of our Church family, but rather it is necessary for the survival of our biological family. Louisville is where God has provided work for Wes, and for that we are grateful. The past two years have been very hard, wearing and wearying, on us, what with Wes driving to and from Louisville every day. He's tired. I'm tired. The kids are tired. Most nights we don't have family dinner and he usually rolls through the door in time for evening prayers at 8:30 or so-if we're lucky. Not the way we want our family life to go.
So, dear blog-readers-who-go-to-St.-Athanasius , please know that we WILL show up from time to time, and we WILL keep in touch and we DO still love all of you and we WILL keep receiving the bulletin and the prayer list (and keep praying for you). Our cell phones will still be 859, so not long distance. And I'll still be blogging, for what it's worth.
And we'll keep our noses plastered to the wall on facebook, too.
I love you all so much and I'm sorry if I caused offense.
Comments
You and family are on my prayer wall...
What jurisdiction will you be joining? Not OCA, you say?