The Mr. and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend. A whole 18 years married and 24 together as a couple.
Frankly, that's a long time. I'm only 39. You do the math. It is a long time. A whole life time.
I was going to write some great anniversary blog post about how we met or something like that, but it's old news. I've covered it. I could write about love and happiness, but you know what? It's hard to put our life together into a neat little package of a couple hundred words. Besides, if you know us in real life, hundreds of thousands of words wouldn't really cut it!
Instead I thought I'd tell you about our vision quests.
We don't have a real regular pattern of when we do them, but we've held vision days a number of times in the last 20 odd years and it makes a big difference.
So what is a vision day or a vision quest?
It's a little complicated, but I'll try to explain it clearly. Essentially, it's a piece of time that The Mr. and I spend together praying, planning and dreaming of what our family will do and become in the next phase of time.
Sometimes we vision quest yearly. Sometimes we go a couple of years between. Sometimes it's a short 6 months.
How do you prepare for a vision quest?
Well, usually one of us says to the other, hey it's time. Then we start plotting to get a sitter or a team of sitters!
The key to successful vision questing is lack of interruption. No electronics, no kids, no distracting places. We take paper, pens and a Bible.
We always spend some time in prayer alone and together before we hold our vision day. Sometimes fasting is involved, but not always.
It's a great time of peace and dreaming and excitement. We look ahead and try to make some plans for the future. We pray and dream and wonder what God will do next.
Sometimes it's as simple as when should we begin looking for a new used car. Sometimes it's a huge leap like are we really ready for foster care. Sometimes it's just sitting back in awe wondering what it would really look like if a family were totally sold out and surrendered to God.
Once in a while we come away with very concrete plans and detailed next steps to get to a certain point. Other times we come away with just a hint of a dream or a hunch of which way things will go.
Either way. These vision days have been priceless for us. They give us a dedicated time to reflect on where we've been, what God has done and hints at what God might be planning to do in the future. It gives us a deep centered connection. We come away connected. We come away being ultimately on the same page.
That's it. That's all. No rocket science here. No magic bullet.
20 odd years into this life, it's still all about communication, sharing, trusting, dreaming, and so on. Being on the same page in the same book is everything.
Another season of vision questing is upon us. It's an exciting season. The dreams are big.
And us? Well, we're solid and that's the best feeling ever.
So tonight we'll go grab a burger and a drink, play a little. Move on to a quiet dessert and some talking. Tomorrow on the real day...eh, not much beyond the regular jazz, paying bills and making sure the Little's are all ready for another week.
But it's a good life. No, It's a Wonderful Life.
