Developments part the next

How many developments have there been? Well, I don't know but here's another one:

We put an offer in on a house today. We should have a deal by Monday. Then we start on getting finances to buy it, and we're not sure how that will play out. But we're optimistic. We are scheduled to close on the house by the end of July.

Wow!

We're still full-time missionaries until April 30, and then we drive to New England for my 45th college reunion. On that trip we planned to do significant research and see friends. And then drive back by way of Tucson, pick up the Durango and the load from D's office at UA, and drive to Anacortes to start our life there.

So much for ideas from the past.

There's no point in assuming this new plan will endure any longer, but here it is:

We no longer have to drive to Tucson in late June, the hottest season, and get the stuff. And there's no need to take it to Anacortes: it can come here. To our house here.

Van asked the other day which would be our vacation home and which our primary residence. It's obvious, I think, that Anacortes will end up being our vacation home...

So we will go straight to Anacortes after the trip to New England, and get to work on books and garden and hikes and trips to the Cascades. And then we will come back to Salt Lake for the winter season. And at that time we will drive to Tucson and get the load from D's office.

So what will we do here? Resume our mission. Probably as Church Service (part-time) missionaries, but possibly for the six months after we get back - in fall 2010 - we could be full-timers.

There are details such as the need to reapply (and do the physicals and all that) if we are to be away for more than 3 months, which we would be. So probably we would be CSMs and work in the library 3 days a week.

But it's impossible to say. The books we have set out to write are compelling in themselves. And we have a whole community here to learn about.

Well, we might not get a sales agreement on the house, and we might not be able to arrange financing, but if both these things go through without a hitch, we will be residents of Salt Lake by August.

So what' the house like? About 1650 sf, big living room across the front, big dining room on the right facing the back, and a decent sized bedroom plus bathroom plus closet on the left. Behind the dining room a lavatory. Behind everthing a kitchen, the big closet before mentioned, and a laundry room. Then a small yard covered at the moment in concrete. In the basement, two finished bedrooms partly above ground. No garage, but a shed. No grass. Place for a shady garden in the front facing south. A tenth of a mile to Van's, up the hill and to the right. A total of 1.2 miles to the Family History Library, less to the temple by a bit. Libraries are nearby and Smith's and a haircut place one block up the hill, closer than Van's. It's over 100 yrs old, brick. Pretty cool place!

We'd have room for overnight guests and dinner parties and patio parties and midnight walks. And we hope we'd have nice enough weather, since we would be here winters, to walk to work and home again.

Well, we'll see.

Not enough!

Twelve months here is not going to be enough. So we have extended for another 6.

But 6 more won't do it either: we are fulfilled in what we are doing, with people we know, with being near family and walking distance to the temple and the choir and beautiful gardens.

We really need to stay forever.

But on the other hand, we need to get back to Anacortes and plant our garden and write our books. And see our friends and the ocean and enjoy cold summers.

So we have a plan: 6 months here, 6 months there. And that means buying a house here. And we've started looking.

We can't be full-time missionaries on such a schedule, but we can be Church Service Missionaries, and that can be essentially the same thing but with more freedom.

In fact, there may not turn out to be anything magic about 6 and 6. We'd have to learn by doing.

Which we intend to do. :)

Integration

We have been on our mission for 7 1/2 months. Each month has led us to new understandings and confidence. The pieces have been collecting. And now we are beginning to experience integration.

One of the beauties of turning 50, I recall, is the feeling that things were beginning to make sense. The parts were starting to add up to a whole. This new mindset resulted in peace as well as a certain headiness around the idea that life could be grasped.

Becoming 60 was like turning a shallow corner. The changes were not abrupt, and the realities of the sixties could be seen from well back in the 50s. The biggest augmentation of 50s life was in realizing we could take control of our affairs when retirement finally became our reality. We figured it would happen when JSL was 67 or 68, but times changed and we were fully retired right after his 66th birthday.

Retirement meant being able to make more choices about our life, such as where in the world to visit, where to settle, when to serve a mission.

The mission came upon us sooner because retirement was sooner. We had been thinking about our mission for years, but by January 2008 we knew we wanted to go to Salt Lake for a family-history mission. One reason was because the economy appeared to be tumbling and house prices were falling, which meant, we felt, that we needed to stay close to home so we could take care of our affairs.

So the events of our 60s started coming at high speed, and we embraced them.

Now, after 7 months of full-time mission life, we find ourselves molding the pieces of our lives - the ones we began to discover as part of a whole more than a decade ago - into just the life we want. Here's where we are today with this creating:

We want to continue to serve in the Family History Library indefinitely. We extended our full-time call until April 30, 2010. But that will hardly be enough.

We could stay here forever - till the end - but we have other work to do. We have books to write, and places to visit, and gardens to plant.

So how to bring it all about...?

By living half a year in Anacortes and half a year in Salt Lake. By having a garden in Anacortes. By living in Anacortes from mid-May to mid-November, or June 1 to November 1, or something like that. By writing books in Anacortes. By indulging widely in the outdoors life. And then by coming back to Salt Lake, serving in the library many days a week, visiting children and grandchildren, enjoying conference and the Choir and evening concerts. And in between by traveling.

It's a beautiful vision to me. I see our moving forward in this dynamic setting for at least another decade.

There is such a balance to this plan! I see a small house in each location. The Anacortes one would have room for a garden, a little greenhouse, and visitors. It would have a view of the sea. The Salt Lake one would be a short bus-ride or walk from Temple Square and would be cozy and have good workspace.

We would write the books we have lined up and continue to be physically active as well as deeply engaged in understanding our kindred dead and helping others to do the same.

This is what the 60s is all about: not only understanding the parts but molding them into a meaningful and dynamic whole.

This understanding is causing a great swell of passion, excitement, rightness, and goodness within us. We will create it, and do it. Amen.