A Sad Relief

The other day, a friend of mine described the death of my mother as: "a sad relief."  I'm liking that phrase more and more.  It captures the mixture of feelings you experience after someone has had a long and difficult illness.  Sad, for obvious reasons.  A relief, because this long, long trip is finally over.

Lately, I've been working out the business of "returning to normal."  Or, better said, moving to a new normal of sorts. 

As my mom's life ends, so does the job that I've taken on for the last four years.  I've been doing all kinds of housekeeping tasks, filing endless documents, making phone calls to straighten out my Mom's business affairs, faxing, mailing, writing, sorting.  When I'm not doing paperwork, I am weeding through years of pictures and furniture, what to keep, what to store, what to give away.  It seems I've been doing this for a long time.  And, now it's coming to an end.

Recently, I've also had some time to do some of the things I enjoy.  Reading, writing, taking pictures.  Expect to see more photos on this blog soon---as a matter of fact, don't be too surprised if the whole look of this blog changes.  It may even split down the middle into two separate blogs---I'm not sure yet.  I am working with a good friend who knows a lot more than I do about the online life.  She's giving me ideas and I am mulling them over in my head.

Will I go out and get a job? Will I continue working at home? Will I pursue more ministry? Will I start to develop some of the career stuff I've been toying with for years?

Time to change a few things out.  Time to move towards the new normal.