Five Minute Friday: Writer (Silver and Gold)

So this week I'm using the FMF word for the week not to write about being a writer but to just be a writer and write (for a bit longer than 5 minutes since I worked on it on and off as we adventured with family today)...

The pull to Lowville is strong today. (Lowville is the town Glenn did his rural rotation in for 9 months at the end of medical school.) This morning a friend wrote me that they've tapped some of their maples and have about 12 gallons of sap they're planning on boiling down tonight which will only be about 1 quart of syrup when it's all said and done after all that work but a sweet reward for 8 hours stirring around a fire. She told me her family was talking about my family at breakfast and how we would enjoy keeping them company around the fire and "doing science" with them. Hannah said, "If we leave now we could make it there by Sunday." *sigh*

Then I saw another friend's reminder to come to their all day game day at their place tomorrow. "Bring your favorite games and be prepared to lose" We went to the first couple of game days they hosted last year. It's just too far away. *sigh*

On Wednesday I wore my Cheesecake Festival t-shirt and whenever I do I always get comments about how those who see it wish they could go to a cheesecake festival. It's fun. But far.

This week I was chatting with one of Glenn's colleagues. We were talking about how difficult it is to make community, especially when you've had great community in the past. She told me that one thing God laid on her heart was that verse from Proverbs, "Better a neighbor close by than a brother far away." Oh, but I miss my brothers far away and they still hang out with each other without me and I've been here longer than I was there and I still don't have that kind of community and almost every Sunday one of my kids leans into me at church and tells me how they miss their friends in Lowville. *sigh*

I live in Fort Worth not Lowville. Glenn's colleague told me God's challenge for her is to: "Live where you are."

OK, so we'll keep trying at this neighbor close by thing. I know one key to community in Lowville was those great community potlucks we had at at the park in Croghan. Already on the calendar in the next couple of weeks we have a picnic planned with our Sunday School class, a medical missions meeting at our place and a cookout out with the other resident families in our program at the home of someone from the Tarrant County Medical Alliance. We'll keep working on these neighbor close by relationships we have here, they aren't the same as the brother far away relationships but they're good and worth investing in. It reminds me of that old song I learned in Girl Scouts "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."