Moor’s End

We have arrived in Oklahoma and just ahead of the coming “wintery mix” of freezing rain, sleet and snow. And…I love it.

As beautiful as it was in Santa Cruz, I found myself missing weather. I noticed out there that weather simply was not an issue…at all. When it’s beautiful most every day, weather simply doesn’t come up. Not in conversation, not on Facebook, not on Twitter.

Of course I’m in Oklahoma for two days and we’ve got plenty of weather…in spades! I saw that the weather in Guymon, a town in the Oklahoma panhandle went from a high in the 70’s to a low wind chill of 5 degrees in the course of 24 hours. Extreme? Uh…yeah.

And yet we’ve been pulled and now anchored for awhile here in my homeland. To borrow a line from (in my opinion) the greatest letter (that’s not canonized Scripture) ever written from Sullivan Ballou to his wife just a week before the Battle of Bull Run in 1861, the love of my family and friends “seem to hold me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break…”

It’s in this spirit that Lainey and I have christened our current port-of-call “Moor’s End.” To “moor” is to secure a ship or boat, both vessels meant for travel, by cables or anchors or lines. We are moored here by the love of our family and friends.

We are deeply humbled to have a house that’s been made available to us as long as we may need it in Edmond, Oklahoma. Ironically, Moor’s End is located just a few blocks from the “ancestral home” of Lainey’s family. Her mom’s dad, “Pop” Marks owned a farm at the corner of 15th and Bryant. A corner now of Talbot’s, Coldwater Creek, Ann Taylor, Panera Bread, Starbucks and a city park. So living in Edmond for a while is like going home for us in more ways than one.

I’ve written quite a bit about the journey and the adventure and traveling outside your own comfort zone. But I’m realizing that there are lots of good reasons for staying put. Family, job, community; all great, legitimate reasons for not heading out into open water.

But I guess even these reasons can cross over. They can go from being a blessing to a curse. These moorings can begin to hold us against our wills. The secret is to know when those things are holding you secure and when they’re holding you back.

For now, we’re moored at Moor’s End, safe and secure in familiar Oklahoma. And it’s good to be home.