Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Back from the west

It has been a month since I have last posted anything. Micah and I have been out west for most of the past month, for a number of reasons. I had a chemistry conference to attend in Edmonton, we visited Paula's parents and many of our friends in the Vancouver area, and I took an excellent course at Regent College. There is much for me to process and think about from this trip, as it marks the beginning of a transition into our new life: new experiences and memories, new relationships and friendships, new ideas and directions.

One of the highlights was a personal retreat at Rivendell retreat centre on Bowen Island, during which I began to write a series of letters that I hope to give to Micah one day when he is older. I hope that I have the discipline to finish this over the summer. I also re-read two of the books that I read last summer (Wolterstorff's Lament for a Son and Sittser's A Grace Disguised) and I was struck by how much my grief journey was influenced by these two books. I don't think I would be in the place I am now if it were not for what these wise and experienced fellow mourners have shared and expressed in their books.

It was strange to spend a long stretch of time in Vancouver, where Paula and I spent the bulk of our life together. In some ways, that time seems like a past life already, which is frightening to me.