Tonight found the female two thirds of the family at the Village Green where we were marveled by bodies in purple spandex, golden retrievers, and a hundred little children inching as closely as they could to the stage. The spandexed bodies belonged to the members of Galumpha a modern drama dance troupe and wow us they did. And not just with the stunts they pulled with their muscles and extremities--their dazzling smiles put everything else to shame, and that was a tall order. Everything else was worth the wow alone!

One of the delights of living in the Northeast is that hamlets are in plenty and cities are scarcities--thus airports are too. So my yesterday afternoon was spent driving a far piece to Rochester to pick up one of my favorite people and her favorite boy. It was a lovely drive and one I didn't mind in the least. New York is more than some long islands and several million people rushing with cell phones and schedules, but most people don't know that. Allow me to enlighten you: New York is a great grand glorious state centered around a great grand glorious 6 million acres of Green. And, trust me, there was plenty of Green to be seen during my drive yesterday.

There was also a bad case of sore jaw by the time I arrived at home at 1:38am. My dear friend and I try to talk once a week on the phone, but somehow there is still more to say. We haven't lived in the same area for three years, one or the other of us keep moving, but subjects like child-training, holiness, relationships, futures and pasts are enough fodder for opinions and thoughts. We both agreed that we talked more in four hours than either of us had in a long time. It was lovely.

So is her beautiful boy.

One of the conversations we had centered briefly around the fact that she, and a growing number of my peers, are married folk now, parenting children and talking about menu-planning and the best brand of cloth diapers. My life is not so interesting. However (emphasis mine), there is not a shred of jealousy or discontentment in me when I say that. Someone asked me recently how I respond to the dwindling number of single females my age in my general circumference (1). My reply: I don't deal with it!

I count it a blessing that I can head over to one friend's house on Sunday nights and cradle twin boys while watching HGTV. I am thrilled that I am in a position to spend ten hours driving to pick up a friend from the airport. I am available at the drop of a hat to sit at the Little Yellow House with my favorite kids. I spend my days working at my favorite place in the world and during the school semesters I spend my evenings running to meetings and classes and coffee dates and home to sleep and up to my favorite place again.

This isn't to say that I don't feel loneliness, but I know they do too. This isn't to say that I don't feel harried and hurried, but I know they do too. This isn't to say that I don't feel useless and pointless, they sometimes do too. This is to say that it isn't about which season they're in and I'm not, this is about which season I am in and how I'm (finally) choosing to spend it blessing them in theirs.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't always felt this way; and I am not so naive as to think I'll always feel it so keenly--but today I do, and yesterday, and I purpose to act it tomorrow, even if I don't feel it.

That's what Willing and Ordering is all about.