In Whom I Trust

Cold and blustery this morning. Wind is whooping at 20 to 27 miles per hour. Temps are around 16. A little snow fell last night. High temp will be 20 by mid day then falling to the low single digits during the night. Winter. Brrr! Well, it is into the second half of February. If it is to be cold now is the time.

Still, we have had a mild and pleasant winter season. Very little snow. A little ice. None of it lasted long. Balmy breezes dried up the snow and evaporated the ice. Roadways were navigable and safe. The days are already lengthening and mild days bring smells redolent of spring. It comes!

Gray days when weather conditions are changing. Bright sunny days when the weather high is overhead and cold. Dark and gloomy days are a usual partner to our Midwestern winters. Some years we are in the dark for 3 months solid. Others are highly variable.

What does this all mean? Funny you should ask! A college chum back in those days told me when I was glum that the sun shines bright in the morning. So, get over it! Dump the blahs and seek the sunny side of the street,…and day.

That is not always easy to do. Some problems nag us and cause sustained worry. Others drop their gloom on us suddenly but repeatedly. As I age I get better and weathering these set backs but I still have them. They still unsettle me. I guess the lesson is persistence.

Sitting in a group meeting the other day we were talking about how we are prone to let past habits drag us down from time to time. That is until one woman reminded us that life is so much more rewarding without that behavior and that alone drives her towards the rewarding outcomes. Her journey has an impeller that presses on toward the good. The bad is neatly and now easily avoided.

In church the other day we were asked to identify what we trusted in. We were asked to write that down on a note card. On the other side we were asked what we didn't trust in and record it on the card. My trust was in ‘community.’ My distrust or worry was housing. That’s to be expected. We are in the process of losing our house. It is a long and time consuming process, but the outcome is inexorable – the house will go either in short sale or foreclosure. It takes months for the process to unfold but we remain in place to keep the house safe from frozen pipes and to maintain as high an asset as possible. We could just leave but that wouldn't be fair to the lender. So here we sit.

I don’t really expect to become homeless. But the thought crosses my mind. We will be able to rent a place once we are out of the house but where is an open question. We just hope it will be close by in the same community in which we live right now.

Over the years the supply of elder housing has become more of a problem. This type of housing shares these common elements – reasonable or low cost, stable pricing over time, one-level living, modest size for ease of maintenance. Those are the elements most commonly sought after. But location is another for me. I need a diverse community around me, one that has interesting thoughts and activities. So we don’t get bored or feel unneeded. Life has been filled with purpose up until now and I wouldn't want it to become the opposite at this point in life. What a waste that would be!

Trust in community – people joyfully living in close proximity with one another and caring about each other – so the living experience is expansive, growing. From that environment adequate housing emerges. I know that is happenstance at best. But I trust that community will make it more a rock solid feature eventually. Not in time for us, perhaps, but in time……..

February 21, 2013