Life takes us through lots of twists and turns, doesn’t it? Even when we have a plan, things tend to go as we least expect.
I think about that a lot these days. Why? Because I never imagined Jeff and I living the life we are living.
I never imagined we’d be on the road for his job as often as once a month. In the years when he had his own law firm, he’d do anything he could not to have to travel! But now we travel, and it isn’t usually trips I get to do my own thing while he works. Most often, the travel involves both of us being with people for most of the time away.
Don’t get me wrong. We’ve had the opportunity to go to some great places and have amazing experiences. We’ve met lovely people. And I’m so grateful for that. But a life of business travel is exhausting, especially as we get older. It’s not just the wear and tear on our bodies. Or the wear and tear on our introverted preferences. It’s the not being around to experience life with friends and family. It’s less time for me to write. And it is the constant cycle of getting ready to go on a trip, being on a trip, or catching up after a trip rather than living a “normal” life.
Of course, if I go back to high school, I once answered the question of what my life would look like in ten years as me living in Dallas in a high-rise apartment by myself. (I had no idea how I would be supporting myself, mind you!) Once I met, Jeff, my vision of my future life changed drastically. And after we both got our dream jobs in our forties, my imagined life changed again. But even in all those changes, I never pictured this life. The one that is now.
Yet God is so faithful to hold me up in body, mind, and spirit as we do what He has called us to do. And so I try not to long for what I don’t have and appreciate what I do. But I still enjoy it immensely when we get more than four weeks at home!
How does your life now look different from what you once imagined?