Grace period

We are going to call August the ‘Grace period’.  Because our daughters are here with us and we are helping them transition to their ‘next chapters’, I keep telling people things like “After August, we’ll have you over for dinner,” “After August I’ll be available for that.”  People are very happy to give me a month.  And I am comfortable giving myself a month.

I have said publicly that I am not going to start looking for work until January.  And I will hold true to that.  But yesterday a gray area appeared.  I was asked by my husband’s superior if I would meet with two different groups to offer ‘input’.  I gave him my standard, “nothing in August” response.  And he was fine with that.  But the question arose internally, “What are you going to say ‘yes’ to, little girl?”

Am I going to actually rest? Or am I going to fall into my old pattern of getting busy and filling my time?  How much is manageable?  How much is too much? Certainly a lunch meeting will not interrupt this season of restfulness. A few conversations won’t overtax me, right?

Right?

I don’t know.

I have been in Ann Arbor for eleven days.  We have unpacked boxes; we have set up our systems in the house — kitchen, laundry, office.  We have visited with old friends.  We have made new friends.  I have blogged.  I have walked.  I have napped.  I have visited two doctors.  I have renewed my Michigan driver’s license.  I have baked a pie, and made mimosas.  I have laughed.  I have watched movies.  I have almost read a whole book.  I opened the first puzzle box.

It’s been lovely.  It’s a grace period.  A time when I make no commitments.  A time to heal.  And I already know that August is not going to be enough.

The nest will be empty starting on September 5th.  I am going to need grace to adjust to that, I know.  After all, the nest has been pretty darn full since 1992!  If I start making commitments and filling my calendar I won’t take the time to feel whatever I will feel when they are all gone.  And I do want to feel it.

In confirmation class I learned that grace is ‘undeserved favor’.  I don’t know why God has given me this gift of time to rest.  No one else I know has been given all these months to be still.  But who am I to take this gift and throw it away?

I am God’s child.  He has given me an undeserved gift of time to be still, to recover, to heal.  I am receiving this gift.  I need His grace, period.  So I will soak Him up during this ‘Grace period’.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9