Exile? Or, The Best of Both Worlds?

It feels a lot like exile, being apart from my family while living again in Kansas City.

Karol and our three children and three grandchildren are in the cool, mountain climate of Hawaii this evening, while I am in hot Kansas City.

It's not really that bad here. I share a house with two friends, one a priest. We have a chapel on the lower floor with incredible stain glass windows. (See the above picture for one of those windows.) I have lots of time for quiet reflection and prayer.

Of course, that's good, except that I miss Karol and our family.

With the five hour time difference, they are probably now just finished with lunch. I just finished dinner.

I'll call Karol before I go to bed, to hear about her day. I already called her once, and she called me earlier as well.

As an adolescent, I loved the literature of exile. I devoured Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Camus. I experienced a vicarious appreciation for James Joyce's wonderful anti-hero, Stephen Daedalus. I feel like I am in exile now, but not the exile of an adolescence angst.

I feel a deep yearning for the fullness of my family and married life to return.

I'll be here six weeks.

In those six weeks, I'll orient the new DeLaSalle Executive Director, and formally leave my office and the school. I'll set up a new office for my new job with DeLaSalle in this house, and continue to raise money for DeLaSalle. I'll be the new Director of Sustainability. Nice title, hard job. But I'm up to it.

I love raising money.

And I can't wait to see my family.

Until then, I'll pray for them and talk over the phone to them. An exile of sorts, but with an interesting balance and an exposure to two very different worlds. The best of both worlds!