Now and Then

Today I did it – I transitioned from being an Ontario driver to a Saskatchewan one. My drivers license and car now see me as a Saskatchewan resident. (I guess the police do too LOL.)

When the young man handed me my new plate, and I stepped out to my car, I actually found myself feeling a bit teary about the whole scenario, about the “change”, the “transition” about to take place. Oh I am happy to be here, and to be doing the ministry I am doing, but like anything there is a letting go, a downsizing from a large home to a small apartment, from a big province to a smaller one, and from a large work circle to a few colleagues. For me all that had to happen for me to BE here.

In the big picture of one’s whole life this is not really that big a change, and I really don’t have that many “big” changes I encounter on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis in contrast to the people I journey with. Sometimes it feels like their whole life is one of “downsizing”. Downsizing space and moving into smaller and smaller spaces with less and less stuff. Downsizing families and friends due to death. Downsizing abilities due to dementia, vision and hearing loss, and new physical limitations on movement and travel.

In the midst of this downsizing is humor, faith, and perseverance. One sister, on the cusp of turning 90, told her doctor that she needed knee surgery soon while she is still young. Another shifted rooms from a one bedroom suite to a one room suite and says the space is simply perfect, it has everything she needs and it all stays in order easily. Sometimes the downsizing is hard, and one of the hardest seems to be letting go of one’s “ministry”, the doing part of one’s life, while finding new ways to be faithful to one’s mission and community charism.

So much space is created when one downsizes with grace and patience, so much light is able to penetrate that space and share the Gospel of Christ’s faithful love with others. Let the light shine, we all can be blessed by being within its glow.