Remembering Memorial Day

1Josh • 28th May 2010 • blog entries, cascades experences, musings

I can’t remember the last time I blogged. I’m not talking about tweeting, iditablogging, or baby progress announcing – I mean actually sat down and wrote a blog entry about what’s going on in my life.

It’s the beginning of Memorial Day Weekend and I’ve been doing lots of thinking as I trudge around in the rain getting a few things ready for family camp this weekend. Memorial Day has been oddly memorable for a while now; here in the northwest there is always a strong sense of the seasons changing from spring to summer at the end of May. The last two years has held some very special weddings, and it’s always about now with the first event of the summer at camp that I begin the final stretch to get things done at work and preparing for staff to arrive in a few short weeks.

More often however, I always think about Memorial Day weekend 2004 – 6 years ago. On this afternoon six years ago Lydia and I packed up our car and headed out to camp for our last summer on summer staff. We had quit our jobs and put most of our things in storage and we would be heading to Nome for a year at the end of the summer. I remember coming from my last day at work that morning, finding myself a few hours later welcoming campers and feeling like I had entered a different world.

I can’t believe that was six years ago. God’s been good to us every minute since. He gave us an amazing year in Nome, and then brought us back to Cascades to work and live. We’ve gotten dogs, moved into houses and trailers, and Lydia’s went back to school and received her master’s. We’ve gone on amazing vacations and had all the adventure you could ask for, we’ve grown and have been stretched, our marriage has had highs and lows and we’ve been blessed with an amazing little baby boy.

So, Memorial Day Weekend might have a totally different meaning for me than it does for most people, but this will always be a time to look back and reflect on the provision of God in our lives.