Blessings

I have been away at Saint Meinrad for Gradual School since Friday, returning home this afternoon(Sunday). I leave tomorrow afternoon for an overnight conference for work again. I will be home just long enough to appreciate seeing mrangelmeg and the kids and to unpack and re-pack my suitcase.

It was so nice to drive into the driveway this evening, even though I knew I would only be here overnight. Last year on this same weekend I just stayed down at Saint Meinrad and drove straight to the Administrator's Conference from there, without even coming home. I did that once last spring as well for NCCL in Louisville.

I don't know how people who have to travel a lot for their jobs keep their sanity, especially if they have a family. I have to sleep in my own bed in order to get productive sleep. I have to have my family about me in order to feel secure enough to function.

I am truly blessed. After I get home on Tuesday I will be able to stay put for close to a month before I have to go back to Saint Meinrad for my last weekend of this class. After that I get nearly six weeks off before the next class begins. Only I will be going on retreat the weekend before my class starts.

Saturday evening in our spiritual formation group we were talking about consolation and desolation and how the cyclical nature of our lives helps us to appreciate the consolations all the more. I think I am beginning to learn how to appreciate being at home all the more now that I am being called away. All those years when I was a stay at home mom I would get so frustrated and feel all cooped up about being at home. Now I can't imagine anything nicer than being able to spend a weekend puttering around the house. I guess back then I didn't have any frame of reference from which to compare.

Now I understand the blessings that hearth and home provide. I appreciate the stability of a place where I know where everything is, and I feel comfortable in the bed. I am blessed beyond words. It is so interesting to me that my being physically removed from my home by my work and other pursuits has done more to make me appreciate being at home than my being at home. God is so funny that way.

Pax