Christmas 2021

 

Christmas 2021

This world and everything in it is on loan, entrusted to our care for our time.

~John McQuiston II, Always We Begin Again~

 

“What do you do all day?”

This question comes our way more often since Lloyd’s 2019 retirement from ChildServe and our subsequent relocation from Des Moines to northern Michigan. These two events, along with the 2020 arrival of a global pandemic have shaped what we currently do all day.

Sometimes we joke that we just sit on the beach all day (which may or may not be true). And sometimes we try to describe how we organize our lives and allocate time, now that paid employment is no longer necessary. We are still the same people with the same personalities and experiences that shaped our personal and professional lives thus far. Even though many things have changed, the essence of what we do remains very much the same.

Here’s what it boils down to for us: what we do all day is tend. Its what we all do, really. Each of us, in our own unique way.

To tend is to pay attention to, to care for, to love someone or something to become all it can be. To make things better. All of us tend relationships in our lives: with ourselves, with our families and friends, with groups and organizations, with the natural environment. Sometimes we tend well, and sometimes we forget to pay attention, or get distracted or get too wrapped up in our own self interests. Fortunately, every day is a new day to start over.

John McQuiston suggests that we actually have a responsibility to tend:

 Everything we have is on loan. Our home, our businesses, rivers, closest relationships, bodies and experiences, everything we have is ours in trust, and must be returned at the end of our use of it. As trustees we have the highest and strictest requirements… to use nothing for our sole benefit; to manage prudently; and to return that which has been in our care in as good or better condition than it was when given into our custody. (Always We Begin Again)

Many of the individuals we prioritize today are the same people we’ve been loving for many years already, but there are new relationships developing here in Michigan too. We have new neighbors, new community leaders we are getting to know, new and different organizations to be involved with-organizations like Leelanau Conservancy, United Way of NW Michigan, Glen Arbor Township, Glen Lake Community Library, Traverse City Track Club, our budding church community and more. Over the past few years, we spent many hours tending the land we live on as well as the adjacent school property. We’ve been working hard to make things better, and are delighted to discover that the school property is beginning to serve as a neighborhood gathering space. Since there are so many beautiful lakes and rivers here, we’ve added kayaking and canoeing to the list of outdoor sports that replenish our spirits.

We hope that what we do all day and what you do too, will somehow bring a glimpse of wholeness and well-being to this struggling world. This hope is rooted in a quiet trust that all of life is in good hands; that each and every moment is held within the great mystery of God’s loving presence.

All shall be well.

Vicki Vanderkwaak On December 12, 2021   /   A Word