Home-Making

             The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. (Proverbs 14:1)

I feel as if I’ve been negative over the past several days (Weeks? Years? OK – decades!), and I feel as if I am writing way too much about myself. But today’s verse seems crucial. I’ve told people for months that I’m trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve begun a new phase in my life, and I’m trying to figure it out. The good news is that there are parts of the old phases that are still useful. No matter how much I feel like each new phase – or even each seeming interruption of a phase – is a completely new deal, in which I have to start everything all over again; it’s not. I can still wear jewelry, still take pictures, still look back on Florida as part of my life, etc. I shouldn’t tear down my “old” house. Instead, I should build onto it.

But this is often the way we think. When we start a new phase, we tend to get anxious. We’re leaving this or that behind. The learning curve is steeper than we expected. In fact, we didn’t think there’d be a learning curve. We don’t know exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. We just want to get it done, and we’re tempted to start hammering boards into place. If they don’t fall, we must tear them down to build a house worth having.

The discomfort is normal. Using the energy it creates to move forward carefully is wise. Overreacting is not. As I contemplate the house I’m trying to build, it looks like I need to add a “parlor.” Are you working on your “house”? What’s your project?