"do something fun..."

Post-employment advice #1 (from Papa): "Do something fun."

What Papa had in mind when he gave me this bit of advice was that we go out for a meal or take a trip somewhere fun. So Friday afternoon, we packed an overnight bag and drove out to the "sticks" of Oklahoma, where my husband dropped me off at the home of one of his former colleagues (one of the directors in the company), while he took our exchange student to motorcycle safety school.

It wasn't the typical weekend trip, because we ended spending much of it apart from each other. While my husband sat through lectures on horrible bike accidents and practiced doing figure eights in a church parking lot, I got a taste of life with eight kids. We spent hours in the kitchen, talking about their perspective on the week (and how they braced for possible lay-off), swapping stories about our families, making homemade ice cream, playing games, and cutting hair (they were brave to hand me the scissors).

It was therapeutic to live life with someone else, to hear how they survived unemployment in the past, and to recognize that one of life's most precious resources is not money but the people who weather the storms with you, who not only cry with you but help you to trust and to laugh no matter what the circumstance.

And laugh we did-- even after they begged my husband to perform some of his songs for the fifth time. As I watched him play "one last time" with just as much gusto as the first, I couldn't help smiling-- and thanking God for blessing me with a man who knows how to trust... and laugh... and love.