Five epic years
26/06/23 00:39
The first five years of our marriage were filled with a lot of changes and activities for us. Here is a partial list. In those five years we:
Those are just some of the highlights. During those years we camped on the shores of Lake Michigan and in the mountains of Montana. We made a couple of winter trips into Yellowstone National Park and swam in natural hot springs. We snowmobiled to the edge of the Beartooth-Absaroka National Wilderness. We climbed the Indiana sand dunes and watched the sunset over Lake Michigan. We backpacked into the wilderness and camped in the high country near the northern edge of Yellowstone. I’m sure that there are a lot more activities that I could list if I kept going.
Those were five momentous years - between my ages of 20 and 25.
Now I am seventy, but there have been other times in our lives that seem to me to have been nearly as momentous. The activities of the past week have got me to thinking about those five years, but also the past five years - between my ages of 65 and 70. In the past five years we:
I’m sure that that list could be much longer as well.
Five years ago today we were in Japan meeting the family of our exchange daughter, Masami, for the first time. We traveled to the home she grew up in accompanied by her, our daughter Rachel and son-in-law Mike where we were hosted by her parents and other family members. They treated us to a wonderful evening complete with a noodle slide. (Google it! It is a wonderful entertainment.) The next day they gave us a tour of the surrounding area, including a visit to the Nikko shrine and lunch at the home of another Japanese exchange student.
It was the experience of a lifetime. 20 years after we had hosted Masami for an entire year in our home - watched her complete a year of American High School speaking English in place of her native Japanese, taking her on an epic American road trip vacation that included visiting Yellowstone National Park, camping across Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and a list to Seattle and Whidby Island, not far from where we now live - 20 years later we finally met her “other” parents and her extended family. Although we did not speak the same language, and although 20 years had passed since Masami lived with us, our connection was instant. We realized that even though we had not met face to face we had shared a common bond. We loved and participated in the raising of the same daughter - a wonderful daughter who now brought us together.
It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that we will never forget. It seems like we have always been linked, but it has only been five years since we had our first conversation with Masami’s parents. And now we have a common granddaughter as well.
Sometimes it seems like so much has changed in such a short time. That is certainly how the last five years have seemed to me. Still, there are some things that are the same. We have been married for both of those epic five year periods and eight more which were also pretty momentous. As I write I can hear the ticking of the same clock that has been in three of our homes and was in Susan’s parents home before that. The clock is now in its fourth or fifth generation of her family and it continues to be mechanically sound and fairly accurate, faithfully ringing on each hour for more than 150 years. We are still deeply involved in the ministries of the United Church of Christ where we have many lifelong friends. We still occasionally think of ourselves as Monanans even though we haven’t lived there since our first two seminary summers. Our home is still filled with book and we both enjoy reading every day - ending most days with a quiet time of reading and relaxing. We still love going outdoors and going on big adventures. Travel is still a priority for us.
I think I’m pretty much the same person. I think that I would recognize some people that we knew 45 or 50 years ago but haven’t seen in the interim. I think they might also recognize me, especially if they saw me with Susan. Her hair hasn’t turned white like mine.
Bob Dylan’s song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” is a good description of our lives. On the other hand, however, there are a lot of things that haven’t changed. Most days it seems like we are just a couple of kids in love out to see the world. How blessed we are.
- got married
- graduated from Rocky Mountain College
- moved to Chicago
- spent two summers as managers and cooks at Camp Mimanagish
- met lifelong friends from Australia who traveled to meet our Montana families twice
- made an epic mid-winter train trip from Illinois to Montana and back
- hosted friends from South Africa during their visit to Montana
- spent our first summer away from Montana in Chicago
- had our first articles published in a professional journal
- completed internships
- completed Clinical Pastoral Education
- graduated from Chicago Theological Seminary, Susan with a M.Div. degree me with a D.Min.
- lived in nine different places, moving our household items each time
- accepted the call to serve two churches in rural North Dakota and move our household to the parsonage in Hettinger
- traveled to Europe
Those are just some of the highlights. During those years we camped on the shores of Lake Michigan and in the mountains of Montana. We made a couple of winter trips into Yellowstone National Park and swam in natural hot springs. We snowmobiled to the edge of the Beartooth-Absaroka National Wilderness. We climbed the Indiana sand dunes and watched the sunset over Lake Michigan. We backpacked into the wilderness and camped in the high country near the northern edge of Yellowstone. I’m sure that there are a lot more activities that I could list if I kept going.
Those were five momentous years - between my ages of 20 and 25.
Now I am seventy, but there have been other times in our lives that seem to me to have been nearly as momentous. The activities of the past week have got me to thinking about those five years, but also the past five years - between my ages of 65 and 70. In the past five years we:
- made two trips to Japan.
- navigated a pandemic without becoming infected with Covid
- experienced both of us having heart arrhythmias including Susan arresting twice and both of us having ablation procedures in cardiac cath labs
- retired after 42 years of pastoral ministry - 25 of which had been in Rapid City, South Dakota
- sold the house we had lived in for 25 years
- moved our possessions and household from South Dakota to Washington by ourselves making trips with our pickup and trailer and a trip with a large U-Haul box truck
- made an epic 6.000-mile road trip pulling our camping trailer from Washington to South Carolina and back
- bought a house
- moved again from Mount Vernon Washington to Birch Bay Washington
- greeted two new grandchildren
- accepted the call to an interim ministry position and nearly completed that job
- hosted friends from Australia and from across the United States
- celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary
I’m sure that that list could be much longer as well.
Five years ago today we were in Japan meeting the family of our exchange daughter, Masami, for the first time. We traveled to the home she grew up in accompanied by her, our daughter Rachel and son-in-law Mike where we were hosted by her parents and other family members. They treated us to a wonderful evening complete with a noodle slide. (Google it! It is a wonderful entertainment.) The next day they gave us a tour of the surrounding area, including a visit to the Nikko shrine and lunch at the home of another Japanese exchange student.
It was the experience of a lifetime. 20 years after we had hosted Masami for an entire year in our home - watched her complete a year of American High School speaking English in place of her native Japanese, taking her on an epic American road trip vacation that included visiting Yellowstone National Park, camping across Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and a list to Seattle and Whidby Island, not far from where we now live - 20 years later we finally met her “other” parents and her extended family. Although we did not speak the same language, and although 20 years had passed since Masami lived with us, our connection was instant. We realized that even though we had not met face to face we had shared a common bond. We loved and participated in the raising of the same daughter - a wonderful daughter who now brought us together.
It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences that we will never forget. It seems like we have always been linked, but it has only been five years since we had our first conversation with Masami’s parents. And now we have a common granddaughter as well.
Sometimes it seems like so much has changed in such a short time. That is certainly how the last five years have seemed to me. Still, there are some things that are the same. We have been married for both of those epic five year periods and eight more which were also pretty momentous. As I write I can hear the ticking of the same clock that has been in three of our homes and was in Susan’s parents home before that. The clock is now in its fourth or fifth generation of her family and it continues to be mechanically sound and fairly accurate, faithfully ringing on each hour for more than 150 years. We are still deeply involved in the ministries of the United Church of Christ where we have many lifelong friends. We still occasionally think of ourselves as Monanans even though we haven’t lived there since our first two seminary summers. Our home is still filled with book and we both enjoy reading every day - ending most days with a quiet time of reading and relaxing. We still love going outdoors and going on big adventures. Travel is still a priority for us.
I think I’m pretty much the same person. I think that I would recognize some people that we knew 45 or 50 years ago but haven’t seen in the interim. I think they might also recognize me, especially if they saw me with Susan. Her hair hasn’t turned white like mine.
Bob Dylan’s song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” is a good description of our lives. On the other hand, however, there are a lot of things that haven’t changed. Most days it seems like we are just a couple of kids in love out to see the world. How blessed we are.
