Today is where we pick up where we left off. HB arrived back in town late Friday evening. Since he was pretty exhausted, we decided to embrace some much-needed down time over the weekend.

He returned from a weeklong trip in Ensenada, Mexico, where he and a team of 13 others from our church, built a small home for a family who had been living in a one-room, dirt floored, “home” … a place that we would probably consider a shack. While their new home is still on the small side, they now have three separated rooms and a floor. What an awesome experience for all!

In one of our conversations, before returning home, I mentioned that I would need his help to continue on this simple life adventure. His comment was, “No problem. We’ll pack it up and send it to Mexico.” The gist of the comment…in comparison, we are rich and have far more than what we need.

I knew this would be very timely for both of us. Being among people who cherish the very little that they have certainly puts it all into perspective.

Thankfully, he didn’t come home wanting to get rid of everything that we’ve worked hard for, but we both have a new focus on keeping things that we truly love and that are useful – and parting ways with a lot of other things that don’t fit the bill.

We have a couple of busy evenings to work around this week, but on our free evenings, our plan is to resist the urge to sit in front of the TV when we get home from work. Instead, we’re going to focus in on a certain area and work together to either pack it up for the thrift store, or send it to our garage sale room for family and friends to go through. At the end of the month, I’ll post a picture of everything that’s been piled onto the trailer to be hauled away.

So far, this has been quite a journey. I still believe that had I not dislocated the ol’ pinky toe, I’d be much further ahead in all of this. But even so, I can see how that served to give me new perspective in other areas of my life, like my cluttered way of thinking. This has definitely been a month of lessons.

There’s still time to get much done.
So to coin the simple, but meaningful, phrase…it’s time for us to “Carry on!”