Hello everyone! It has been over a month since Nathan and I got engaged. Being engaged during the pandemic has been werid as we really don’t know what our world is going to look like in the next year. Big question marks like knowing how many guests we will be able to invite, or if we will even be able to take a honey moon, loom large in my mind; there are so many uncertainties.
But even with the difficult time we live in, my heart goes out to those who are experiencing the current impact of the pandemic with weddings that have already been postponed. At least for us, with the hope of a May wedding next year, the likelihood of postponement is a lot slimmer.
Over the past month, we have met via zoom with the pastor of my Parish at St. Vincent de Paul in Federal Way to discuss getting married at my church and the process of reserving the church social hall for our reception. We have thought about guest lists, invitations, color schemes, decorations, catering, and the like, but nothing has been reserved or set in stone. We are still very much in the brainstorming process!
One big announcement! Nathan recently made the decision to switch career paths from his current schooling to become a Radiology Technician, to a trade school certification program to become a Residential Electrician. I am so proud of him for realizing where his true talents lie; he has always been a hands-on learner. He is planning to begin a 144 hour coursework program online through Green River College where upon completion, he will be prepared to take the electrician licensing exam and start as an apprentice in the field. Please keep him in your prayers during this transition.
We still see each other several times a week which has been a blessing, even if only to each other’s houses. I have enjoyed afternoons watching movies, evenings spent over board games with Nathan and his roommate, Alex, taking care of the pets, and shopping trips to Safeway or Walmart.
A deep part of me misses the life we had before the pandemic. Life is so much simpler now. My days are spent working limitedly from home, cooking, cleaning, writing, reading, or resting. This new reality has forced a change in me as I have had to leave behind the pace of life I knew before. I never realized how fast my life was when I packed the daily schedule traveling from this event to the next, day after day. It’s hard to believe just how much I strove for what I perceived was the next big thing before the pandemic brought a halt to all of that. I am still very much a person who strives to accomplish a lot, but every day, I tell myself to find a little more peace in slowing down and not feeling obligated to “do” but instead to “be”.
My thoughts in these days have been extra anxious about the future, and stressed about all I feel I should be doing or how much I wanted life to be so much different from how it is. Some nights I can hardly sleep.
Lately, I have been encouraging myself to imagine Jesus and how he filled his days: building chairs or tables as a carpenter, breaking bread at meal time with family, talking with friends, walking by the water; his daily life was most likely quite simple and mundane. And I wonder, how in our American culture, busyness was the ideal that grew to become what was strived for.
I have a long way to go in letting go of my need for control and my thinking that being busy or checking off boxes equals success or esteem. If it’s one thing this past month has taught me, it’s the joy of a simple life, and just how much I have needed one. One day in the future when the world can be “busy” again, I honestly hope I will remain in the simple life so as to live within the contentment and peace I am beginning to find.
Semper Fidelis,
-Allison
