We just had our usual crazy, chaotic Labor Day family 'in and out and all about' at the lake!

On Monday, we took all the lake 'stuff' and the dock out and bid farewell to another summer.  While doing that, 2 people in their 60's pulled up next door and clearly wanted to see the cottage so Joe went over to offer.  It was THEIR parents who sold the cottage to us 32 years ago!  Their mother had just passed away and they were walking down memory lane.  I was SO GLAD we were there to share their walk with them, tears, memories, laughter and all.  (I was even able to give them a photo I had taken of their folks who had arrived at our door for their memory lane walk in 2006....way cool!)

Anyway, it just seemed ironic because we are now offering to pass the cottage on to our kids so memory lane jaunts may well be in our future...

...which is just fine because we are ready to do with less and less 'things'.

It is TIME.

Yep, my head is ready...

...but, my heart lingers a titch.

We have left many homes so I have pondered why.  I think, it is because Joe and I, from our roots, never really thought we would ever have a place, much less one on a LAKE!

Those of you who have seen it might grin at that.  Those of you who have not, just know that Rock Lake is a very small lake (my uncle who had a place on Lake Michigan called it Rock "POND") and the cottage is modest as is the area...

...but, I grew up in a tiny Chicago city apartment and Joe grew up in a small Toledo city home and then we spent most of our married life in parsonages so to us, this $22,500 cottage 32 years ago was a BIG DEAL!

For lots of reasons besides the fact that (the current generation will giggle at this), it felt like that kind of money was SO much and it felt like having a SECOND house (even if the house we lived in wasn't ours) was just SO extravagant.

I even wrote a blog remembering how when we were in Rwanda, Nehemiah, one of the teachers who was a refugee, said to me that if we had a parsonage AND a cottage and we EACH had a car that we were "very very rich."

I remember it because I cried.

I cried because he was right.

Which is why I think my heart lingers.

Even though this probably seems...and IS...not a place that's 'all that'...

...it was/is OUR place.

And that did/does mean we have been and continue to be "very very rich".

Knowing there are too many on this planet with no car and no home, I continue to struggle with that inequity daily.  That is one reason that removing one less THING is good for us to do at this juncture in our lives.

BUT, we remain "rich"...

...and much of that 'richness' echos in that little house on the pond.

So my heart lingers.

We had good growing times with Matt and Meg before there were more than just the four of us.

There were also times for just Joe and I to laugh and cry and pray and LOVE (before and after prostate cancer...just sayin'!)

Most especially, when our lives seemed out of control, we found moments of respite.

AND, we were determined to share that respite with others because it was a small thing that we COULD do!

My daddy cried the first time he was there.  Joe's folks came every year laden with food.  My mother and Frankie loved it.  LOTS of FAMILY from here, there and everywhere who STILL come.  Our Friends. Kids. Our kids' friends. Grandkids. Grandkids' friends. GREAT grandson. Teenagers aplenty. Dogs. Church folk.  Retreats.

Folk who needed to retreat.

I just looked at our guest book with over 400 entries (including the 'memory lane' folk now) that resonates with the history of a home and the memories of so many!

Red and yellow, black and white, American, Brit, African, Hungarian, believer, non-believer, liberal, conservative, rich, poor, healthy, unhealthy, happy, unhappy, GOP, DNC, LGBTQ, CP,  ADHD, ETC...I am certain I have missed something but, you get the drift....PEOPLE....just plain ol' REMARKABLE people who took us BEYOND OURSELVES.

And, MOST important of all, we grew beyond just the 4 of us to a busy bustling sometimes CRAZY (literally) often chaotic but hopefully, CARING big ol' bunch of Bistayis and Korzos with more coming!

We celebrated new babies to love there.

We grieved the loss of ones we loved there.

And we were perfectly IMPERFECT through it all.

Yet, the house still stands and so do we.

Best to pass it on while we ARE standing...and before we are DROOLING...

...FULLY aware that we are, indeed, very very VERY Rich.

Thank you, 621 N. Rock Lake.

Thank you, remarkable people.

Thank you, Joe.

Thank you, God.

Just ME-andering...

...from a little house on a pond....

...with a head that is ready...

...and a heart that lingers.