POST PARTUM

All quiet on the blogfront this week...and I have sure missed writing!

The days have been crazy busy here in Kendallville the past two weeks, and I'm just now sitting down to catch my breath. Babysitting for the highly mobile grand-nephew; spring cleaning at Grace (Big Celebration this Sunday!); piano guild auditions for the girls; working on the weekly Soli Deo Gloria column for the local paper, with a few last-minute glitches to make things too exciting; working on lesson material for Sunday school and for camp; a highschool graduation/dinner/party; getting my oldest son off to Japan; maintaining the garden; one sick teenager; two silly girls for a sleepover....

Some people thrive on bustle and activity. My mother-in-law, for example - the more she has going on in her world, the more alive and energetic she is. Two straight days of relative calm and she's like a cat in a cage. By golly, if the fun won't come to her, she'll go out and find it! Even if nothing is going on over at Grammy's house, there's a feeling that if you hang around long enough, a party is bound to come crashing through the door.

Me...I enjoy bursts of busy-ness on an otherwise dull radar screen, like fireworks lighting up a dark sky. Have a crazy few days...then pull in the plank to rest and regroup. So, if there's a prolonged burst of "explosions", like the grand finale at a Fourth of July picnic, what happens then? Well, the "explosions" are still fun and thrilling...but the silence after the last sizzle-POP! can be almost deafening. Crazycrazycrazycrazy......c..a..l..m. It's like skiing from snow to slush. Sure, I want to slow things down a bit, but the decceleration is traumatic!

After giving birth, new mothers experience a phenomenon called post-partum depression. After a week of house guests and partying, we suffer the post-holiday blues. The college student crashes after a stint of caffeine-charged, round-the-clock studying for finals. It's all really the same thing - our bodies, our emotions, our minds have been running in high gear so long that shifting down to an idle feels like the world is slamming into us like the cars behind a runaway train engine. After 46 years of riding this train, I know that the squeal of steel brakes on steel will quickly give way to the soothing, familiar rhythm of slow wheels on a level track. There will be a pause to refuel and blow off steam before making the next run.

I want to say THANK YOU to a few folks who have made the wild ride of the last two weeks a thrilling adventure, who helped take the trauma out of decceleration. Thank you, Katherine - for loving me not just like a sister, but almost like you were my mother. You kept me sane. Thank you, Billy McGarity and Mike Hutto, for speaking wise, true words. Thank you, Abby, for being the Mistress of the Dance - so many folks have told me how much fun they had dancing on the lawn! Thank you, Jenny, for awesome work on bass guitar, and Kevin, for beating the bodhran - but especially for blessing me with your smiling faces. You are precious to me beyond words. Thank you, Reuben, for running the taxi. Thank you, to ALL my fantastic kids, for helping in the yard and the house and the garden and with regular chores AND with set-up and clean-up for all the extra activities/festivities.

And, thank you so much to all the dear, dear people who joined in to make Nate's graduation a truly special day. These celebrations make me long all the more for Glory, where the party will NEVER end and there will be NO post-partum blues!