Responsibility

Back in Delaware, taking a shower, I suddenly realized that for the first time in my life I was responsible for no one else but myself.  My parents were gone, dear Ed was gone, our sons grown with families of their own, I had never felt constrained, had always felt autonomous, but now it was clear that I need not conform to anyone else's ideas but my own.  It was both liberating and a little scary, for lack of constraints also meant the lack of anyone really caring; the sobering thought that I was no longer first in the heart of anyone living.  I felt almost abandoned at times.

So, what were my priorities?  How to live a full life expressing my own self?  How to shift the center of my life?  I decided to put myself in the center, to honor my God-given gifts in any way open to me.  My passion for many years had been teaching art to children, but Cokesbury has no children!