This is the beginning of my 5th day here in Montrose and it seems like forever since I saw everyone back home in Kansas. I am homesick, no getting around it, but I doubt that my death certificate will ever read "She died from missing home." Sometimes I wonder what Oblio the roundhead is up to~that darn cat. She was the source of much trouble for me at times (LOL) but she also helped to connect me to one of the truest friends that I ever had. Sometimes here at my new home, I almost expect her to come bounding around the corner at any moment. But she does not. Of course, I miss my 3 children but all I have to do is pick up the phone and give them a call at any time I wish. So thankful to live in the times we do, where technology enables us to stay in contact with all of our friends and family wherever they might be in this huge, but ever shrinking world that we live in.
Everything is very different here and when my mother-in-law and I visited over the phone a day or so ago, she sensed my "sadness" and my desire to see home or at least something close to it. She reminded me that it was ok to be a little sad right now, even a little lost. "Peggy, you are just looking for something familiar to you. Everything there in Montrose is very unfamiliar. It will get better." And you know, she is very right. My dear friend named Patti messaged me all the way from her home in Pennsylvania with thoughts on missing home. She reminded me that it is ok to be sad and to even mourn leaving Kansas. That it's a normal feeling, a natural feeling and in time, it too will pass. They are both correct.
Mike has been such an understanding, caring, and loving husband and he realizes just how hard it is to do what I have done. By Sunday afternoon, we needed a chance to get out of the house and away from the unpacking for a bit. Because Mike loves bowling and is really good at it, I thought it might be nice (in a crazy sort of way) to go bowling with him. Keeping in mind that I haven't bowled since 1978 and the fact that most of my attempts at knocking all of those pins down usually result in gutter balls, it was a little unnerving to me. But I decided, "what the heck?" I can unpack boxes or I can throw gutter balls...so I chose the latter. It was actually a great deal of fun. Shoot, I couldn't beat Mike even if he threw opposite-handed with his eyes closed, but it didn't really matter. For the record, yes I did have a few gutter balls but I also managed several strikes and spares which was a shocker for me. Out of the 3 games, I actually managed to score over 100 each time....my last game was 117. Now for you great bowlers out there, yes I know that is a horrible score. But coming from a woman who remembers at times barely getting 70 of them, I guess I could say that I've improved. The main thing was to have fun with Mike and I would say we accomplished that.
And even as great a miracle as it would seem to be brave enough to go bowling again after all of these years, the real miracle happened just moments later as we were at the Dairy Queen getting some ice cream. I was standing by the door and waiting for Mike when a man and woman approached me from the side. He came up to me and said "Hey, are you the person that is driving that car out there with the Reno County tags? And if you are, then what in the heck are you doing way out here?" And I'm getting goose bumps as we speak because that chance encounter was with another fellow Kansan, as a matter of fact he is another person from Reno County. His name is Justin and he grew up in the small south central Kansas town of Sylvia and was a 1975 graduate of Fairfield High School. He and his wife Karen make their home near here in a small community called Olathe. Friends, I cannot tell you what a gift it was that day to meet up with them, to have this "chance encounter" with them. As I shook his hand, I found it hard to let go and believe me it wasn't because he had the grip of a butcher (yet he did). It was because I realized that our meeting one another was no accident, not in the least. I've been the recipient many times of God's gift of grace and love. He knew I needed to start making connections here~Justin has become one of them. Perhaps we shall meet up with them again sometime in the future and it's just pretty nice and comforting as well to know that they are just down the road a ways from here.
Well, it's 7:15 in the a.m. here and time to get going and start the day. The mountains are being swallowed up by the clouds right now and there is just the slightest of breezes blowing out of the east. Our high temperature today will only be 70 and here, just like so many other places in the United States, Coloradoans are hoping for rain as well. To my Kansas family and friends, I pray for your safety today from the storms. Keep your eyes to the skies all of you. Love you, each and every one.
The view from high atop Monarch Pass during my second visit here to Montrose back in early February. I remember how scary that first journey was and how I hoped that I would make it back to Kansas in one piece. The high country got a dusting of snow last night and it was visible from the kitchen window here in the valley. Still a strange feeling for me to imagine snow falling down during the first approach of summer.
Me with Oblio the roundhead~Christmas of 2010~she was just a six month old kitten back then and we couldn't for the life of us, keep her out of the tree. All the suggestions that my Facebook friends could offer just didn't do the trick. So on the last day, we just let her have at it.
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