The long separate

Today I am settling into a few days at the Northumbria Community in northern England for a course called ‘Singing the Lord’s Song in a Rural Land.’  Today is also the day that begins a summer’s long sojourn without my partner in crime, Justin.  This will likely be the longest stretch apart that we have gone since we’ve been married…actually, since we started dating a mere seven-and-a-half years ago.  (To be fair, this is not the furthest apart we’ve been – two weeks after our wedding, I hopped a plane for South Africa for a couple weeks while Justin stayed in Pennsylvania.)

Our lives here have been very entwined, much more so than the years leading up to our work in London.  For one, we essentially share a job description.  We end up at many meetings together, going to the same events, and generally collaborating on much of our work.  For another, we share a bedroom which doubles (triples?) as our living space, our office, and our storage area.  We spend an awful lot of time together in our room.

We have – painfully, at times – learned to give up a lot of independence to be in London.   We’ve given up having our own ‘physical’ spaces which has also meant adapting to how that affects us getting our ‘emotional’ space.

So, what will it mean to be apart for such a long time, after such an intense two-and-a-half years?  It almost seems like an opportunity to see what blooms – like the flower of a cactus springing forth when you least expect it…or, at least, when you haven’t tried to bring a flower forth.