Home-free

We are proud renters. At least for now. As of last Thursday we are no longer home-owners, which is a good thing, since there are several states between where we live and the location of our former dwelling. It's been tough, paying rent in Montana and paying a mortgage in Arizona, plus keeping up on all the bills that go with maintaining a house in sellable condition: electricity, water, pool maintenance (remember, this is Phoenix we're talking about). In order to make the ends a little closer to meeting, the two of us have been working away at part-time jobs (he got a seasonable job as an early morning stocker at Cost Plus World Market). I can hardly wait to quit. It's not that I don't find my co-workers interesting (and often fairly amusing), and it's definitely not that I don't like shoes (you'd thinking working in a shoe store would be close to heaven...), but there's something about the time, the necessary schedule, that has made these first few months in MT hard for me. Especially in Advent, I am feeling the need for space, and not just space in 3 dimensions, but space in the 4th dimension, too. I crave the time carved out just for prayer, for reading, for connecting with friends. Two weeks from Wednesday Advent will be over, but after a little notice-giving (two weeks is just about right), one of my greatest Christmas gifts this year will be time.