New Space

Empty. Full of promise.

I moved my work space, leaving a communal, big room for a smaller, more cramped space on the main hallway. I left primarily because I took our work table - an IKEA kitchen table I bought when we moved in the building - back to my house to serve its true purpose in the new kitchen.

I'm sitting in this new space, yet to be mine, with nothing personal on the walls or the shelves. I'm listening to "Moving Forward" by Israel Houghton:

I'm not going back
I'm moving ahead
Here to declare to you
My past is over
In you all things are made new

and I'm remembering an afternoon in December, two and a half years ago, when my dear friend Bob Pino let his voice ring through the ballroom in the Jefferson Hotel, singing those words as I stepped out with Tony into a a new promise for me and for my kids.

It was appropriate for our wedding day, a declaration of purpose and gratitude.

It is appropriate today.

There are so many significant markers of change, of newness, of transition. I like new things - I appreciate steady and constant stuff, but I have learned this truth about myself: too long in one place - literally or metaphorically - and I get itchy. I am rarely satisfied with the view from the same position for too long.

This can be wonderful, fresh and exciting. It can also be exhausting.

Today, I'm in a new work space. I can't quite adjust. I've spent a lot of time looking at the walls.

But this is where I want to be, for whatever is required in this new season. August is half over (what??? How did THAT happen???) and September is right round the corner. Time for new books, new school years, changing seasons. My boss will be back in just a few weeks. We'll look forward.

What a moment you have brought me to
Such a freedom I have found in you
You're the healer who makes all things new

Amen. Let's go.

But Lord, do I miss Bob today....