This beloved 6.5 acres of land where we all experience life is sacred ground. Pop literally left his fingerprints and footprints on every square inch of this place.
Every year at about this time, we reluctantly emerge from our winter hibernation and start perusing the greenhouses to see how our plants are doing. Sometimes they need a little water, sometimes a little weeding. But we always have lots of troubleshooting to do.
Water lines get frozen.
Heaters quit working.
Greenhouse plastic gets ripped.
Rodents eat things.
Trucks need repairs.
Plants need to be ordered.
New crew members need to be hired.
And we have always had a radio on our belts or a speed dial on our phone to ask Pop a million questions. Sometimes we've relied on his decades of experience, sometimes we just want to brainstorm together to come up with the best course of action.
But the delight was always in the conversations... Chats leaning in office chairs, or in our living rooms, or in the middle of a bridge game, or in greenhouses, under the hood of a truck, crawling around in the dirt underneath the tractor. And perhaps most often across the table at breakfast. You know, wherever you need to go you can always stop for breakfast on the way...
That was Pop's signature: breakfast. The Egg & I Restaurant was his "other office." I wonder how many hours he spent there- with us, with friends. But always with a twinkle in his eye over a waffle as he squeezed the last of the tea out of his tea bag and looked across the table- we all felt LOVED. And delighted in. Doted on. Encouraged and challenged.
But this year, the radio is quiet and there's no speed dial to reach Pop. And so we cry in the middle of the day because of unanswered questions. And we long for another breakfast. Another conversation. Another cup of tea.
I think that's the Beauty of this story that's unfolding: the Great Longing.
As Poppy put it in a card he once wrote: "Anticipation- sometimes aches... but always has a tingle..."
This separation isn't our final experience- it isn't the last chapter of the book. This is Anticipation. And for right now it aches.
But the tingle is the magic. The tingle is the enduring hope that all that Jesus Christ said is true- that our bodies are passing away, but our spirits endure until we meet again.
And so we can start each day with a renewed smile of Anticipation. And breakfast of course...
