Why Life Part Two?

You may have noticed the title of our little blog here. I chose this name during the 10 weeks or so between when we accepted the job and when we moved. We have moved five times in our marriage, but they have all been mostly local moves, and we keep carrying around all these boxes of really old junk that accumulated the last 20 years or so, some even from before we were married. You know, the kind of stuff you're not quite ready to get rid of, yet doesn't have a function in daily life, so it just gets put in a box. And when it's time to move, those boxes stay packed up and just get moved, and then stored at the new place. Well, with this move to San Diego, we knew it was time to go through our stuff. Maybe it's the distance, the lack of storage (houses here don't have basements), who knows, but we felt the need to really do some cleaning out (cleansing?). So, the week before Allen left, he went through many boxes and we thre away stuff that made us feel...really old. For example, two things of note were class notes, handouts and exams from college. College stuff? No big deal right? Except for the fact that some of these had been reproduced on a mimeograph machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph_machine). When we saw the telltale purple ink, we just laughed. We realize some of you don't even know what a mimeograph is. Well, just know it's what people used before copy machines and desktop printers. We also threw away loads of 5.25" floppy disks. Does anyone even have a 5.25" drive anymore?! We threw away job offer letters and resignation letters from the last couple of jobs. There was a memo from Allen's first job out of college at McDonnell Douglas. It was addressed to some of the very same people Allen is (was) still working with in the St. Louis laser field today. The same guys have been together in many ways and forms for the last 20 years. All these things put together made us reflect on the fact that we now have over 2 decades of adult life under our belts....and well, it made us feel...mmm, like we're in our forties. Sigh. Plus, embarking on this move to California, leaving everything comfortable and all we know, it feels like we're setting out on a new adventure. In many ways, kinda the same feeling as when you leave home to begin college...a fresh start...big unknowns...empty slate in front of you...open hands of trust in the Maker of our Path. Life, Part Two.

Becky