jakorte's blog

It’s been a week since I’ve been in the awesome presence of long-ago, well-chosen, keepers of an inner circle whom I love. I’ve been silently going over the moments, reliving our stories sprouted from common roots: where we began, where we went to, where we worked. Some of our paths are similar, some are not, but our common strength is astounding. No matter what challenges we have faced, we are still standing. We continue on, we question, we seek, we rework. We all serve our LORD in our own way, and support each other in our service. We’ve all been through at least one significant something, some are still in the going-through process. We all see clearly that the good things in our lives would not be if it weren’t for the bad things, as well. When we analyze what we have, compared to what we lost or what we wanted that we never got, we smile because we know we’ve come out on the good side of things.

When I think of each of you, one thing keeps swelling to the surface: admiration.

Admiration for the one who was inspired by another to civic duty, the one who refused to compromise for another moment, the single mothers who work hard to make their children’s lives better, the ones who demand their integrity remain intact no matter what, the ones facing joblessness who still find time and resources to organize benefits and volunteer, the ones whose roads took a path they never would have imagined yet stand smiling where they are, the ones who’ve had to adapt, the ones who’ve had to outright change, the ones who have taken on challenges out of love and willingly had our hearts broken for it, the ones who found happiness the second time through, for all of us who are comfortable in our skins, pleased that we’ve made it this far. With sincere approbation I offer thanks to and for the ones who orchestrated our divergent paths into comfortable convergence for a short weekend that, should we never meet again, will last for the rest of our lifetime.