My mind is flooded with memories of noise, chaos — happy chaos — of laughter; the family we were.  And I “see” the family who we are now, and who we are yet to be.

Re-arranging the dining room/den (which has forever been called the “back-room”), there is now a corner for bird-watching and contemplation.  An antique black typewriter sits on a wicker stand, with a potted palm tree beside it — my little taste of Key West on an early Northeast spring morning.

In this room, our new family will be forged.   The same way the old one was, through times spent together, laughter, and a bit of chaos thrown in….

There is a growing to occur here.  And a pruning as well.  There is sorrow for the losses and the changes pruning brings, but excitement of what is yet to come; pruning is the way to new growth, new buds, new life.

But for now, there is a waiting on God in the silence, in the solitude, in the in-between ….. the waiting between the quiet times and the happy chaos.