Lessons from Colorado

You know how you have some experiences over and over until you learn what you are supposed to learn from them? As we prepare to travel at the end of the month I wonder if I have learned all I needed to learn here in Colorado. I am starting into week seven and I find myself looking over the last six weeks and on to the next two wondering if I have taken advantage of all that was available during this time. The solitude of the first week while she was in the hospital and sleeping most of the day. The escape from the alarm clock that rules my daily life. The lack of a schedule or any structure to the day. Losing track of what day it was. These are not the normal descriptions of my life. The first month was a quiet one as Amanda worked on regaining strength and balance. We read scriptures together, watched way too much TV together, ate together, walked together, went to appointments together, worked on crafts together, and did lots of talking and sharing together. I am grateful for the closeness of our relationship. We have been together almost 24 hours a day since August 29th and have gotten along amazingly well. What will it feel like to let other people into our space? Life here has been very insulated with few visitors and few intrusions from the outside world. A sanctuary from the stresses of my usual routine. What will it feel like to leave this sanctuary and be back around lots of people? What will it feel like to send her back here without me a few weeks later? Perhaps Kevin being here is a prepatory step back into the real world that awaits me in California. Can I hang onto the internal peace that has been with me in the quiet of Colorado?