Feeling Blessed

(Pic courtesy of Jen Shenk Photography)

I can't believe it's been ten years already. Ten years ago I arrived at Canadian Mennonite University feeling pretty stressed out. I'd just left my career of 8 years and moved from my hometown to start university with no idea of what I was going to do with myself. I was, and still am, a farm girl so moving to the city was daunting. Yes, I found Winnipeg daunting. And going to university was daunting. Yes, even CMU was daunting. It doesn't take much for me to find something daunting. The most daunting part however, was living in community with a dorm floor full of energetic young women. I was 25 and most of the girls on the floor were 18 and I certainly felt like the elder stateswoman, and an introverted one to boot!

One day during my first week I walked down the hall, or perhaps meandered, wondering what on earth to do with myself before classes really got going and I saw one of my fellow dorm-mates, one Alicia Buhler, sitting in her room and I decided to be REALLY brave and ask if she wanted to go for a walk. And so we did. 

And here we are, ten years later, still walking. We've traveled a lot since then. We have walked together through 4 years of undergrad, through the excitement of graduation, through the devastation of my sister's death, through the passing of one of each of our grandmothers, through two weddings in her family, through the birth of a niece in my family and a nephew in hers, through candidating and job hunting and more unemployment than either of us would have wanted, through 2 years of pastoring, through moving, and moving, and moving all the way to Indiana, through Seminary, through discernment of our callings, through financial stresses, through figuring out who will do the dishes and clean the toilet, through 4 different congregations, through saying goodbye to friends and hello to new ones, through all kinds of frustration and joys and sorrows. 

It has been a full ten years of almost constant transitions and I feel incredibly blessed that through all of those changes I have had such an amazing friend to rely on. It is such a comfort and joy to know that when the world is spinning out of control, I can come home and she is there. And it is equally meaningful to know that I can be there to support her as well.

Some of the things that I have come to appreciate most about our relationship are:

• the mutuality
• the ways in which our gifts seem to complement one another (I love to cook, she loves to clean!)
• our mutual love of having a settled home, each time we move it takes less than two days to fully unpack and settle in.
• our mutual love of organization and cleanliness
• the ways in which we can dream together
• the understanding we have for one another's calling in ministry
• the ways that we support each other in growing more and more into the women we are meant to be
• the moments of insane silliness
• our shared appreciation for responsible stewardship and healthy holistic living
• our commitment to Sabbath
• our commitment to working through our own processes

And whether our home together ends up being just for a time, or for the rest of our lives, I feel so blessed to be able to share a home with my very best friend.