The Day Michael Handed In His Resignation

For four years, going on five, Michael and I have worked towards one goal. To buy the small guitar store where Michael has worked. To grow it, improve it, and enjoy the comfort of owning our own business.

“Not all that is gold glitters and not everyone who wanders is lost.” –Bilbo Baggins – ‘Lord of the Rings’

That road has ended, and now we are headed down a new path. So, how do we view those years we spent intensely driven towards this one dream that “didn’t work out?” We view it as gold. Gold because those years led us to this year.

This year of wandering, exploring, re-evaluating, and birthing has given us new eyes. Suddenly, we are looking at the same horizon but it looks vastly different. We didn’t know that what was happening in those years was preparing us. We were frustrated, even angry that what we were working so hard towards a goal that was never coming to fruition!

C.S. Lewis said “The best is perhaps what we understand the least,” and this has rung so true in our lives! We thought we were working towards one goal, but we were actually learning valuable lessons in preparing us for the next phase of life.

Without the wandering, frustrating, bang our heads against the wall years, we wouldn’t have been propelled to ask questions, search out who we are and why we are here. We wouldn’t have been grappling with life and all its beautiful complexity.

“Not all that is gold glitters and not everyone who wanders is lost.”

So, are we wandering now? Yes, I would say we are wandering, wading, crawling, through a new land. Our eyes wide with expectation, our hearts quickened by the smell of adventure before us. We are wandering, yes, but not lost. And through the so called drudgery of the unknown, the battles that come are not indeed battles, but gold.

Michael gave his resignation at his job on Saturday. And today, he is my hero.

“It is in man as it is in soil…where sometimes there is a vein of gold that he does not know about.” –Jonathan Swift