Keeping Asking The Questions…Chiming In Here

Wow hun! So well put. I know I am just jumping right in here, with hardly a “Hello, here I am!” but I’d love to start off by saying I remember that about your Mom first hand. It is one of the flavors she left. One time in particular, I actually remember sitting around the dining room table at the cabin, when it had a red checkered table cloth on it (now it’s on the porch) with both of your parents. The light was dim and the air damp, very damp (before the air conditioning). There were candles going and it was another one of those nights we lingered around the table with coffee long after your Dad finished making his napkin mushroom and had probably already said “Well…” but your Mom didn’t listen. The year was 2000 when nothing was right and you were questioning absolutely everything–yourself, others, work, God. Your Dad was sitting at the end of the table with his head in his hands, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say to you. I looked around the room and took it all in…and your Mom put her hand on your back (it was a prayerful hand) and said just those words to you. “Keep asking the questions Warren.” I know it was only one of many times in your life, but that one stands out to me. Partly because none of the rest of us three had a clue what to do, and she did. The impact was so great that I can still see her and I can still smell the air and hear the candles.

People often spoke of her faith, and I know of what they speak, but the very practical faith of knowing that continuing to ask the questions would lead you somewhere…that God would give you some kind of answer is what stood out to me most…maybe it was the most real.  It was one of the ways she held your heart and gave you space to be you. I’d like to think that it’s one way that we were a bit alike when it comes to loving you (maybe the only way…ha!!). “Keep asking the questions,” I think, always fit with who I am and I am so grateful that she called it forth in both of us.

Thanks for getting us started on this journey Warren. I love where you take us and I love to follow you…and I love the mutuality of how that works for us!!