In 2005, Steve Jobs gave a commencement address at Stanford University.  He told the story of dropping out of college and taking a calligraphy class that later influenced the design of the Macintosh.  In this address he said:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

I have been thinking about this idea of dots connecting in the future.  It really makes me feel excited, as I wonder what will come next.

We are in the middle of some big changes in our lives.  We’ve sold our home of 33 years to our oldest son, Adam and his growing family.  That home was the container that held our lives and everything we owned.  Every cupboard and every drawer was filled with memories and STUFF.  We had about 8 weeks to go through everything and thin it out, donate carloads, and pack up what we wanted to take with us.

We are living in the Farm House now, temporary housing right next door, while we build a new home in north east Orem, about 8-10 minutes away.  The builder tells us our home will be finished in October.  This week they finished putting up the sheetrock.

We’ve had a very busy summer.  This blog record is far far behind and will need to be caught up.  In time, I will write and back-date entries to fill in the holes.

But now, I am looking forward, wondering what our future will hold in a new place, with new neighbors and a new congregation of friends.   Our lives will be a little simpler.  I love dreaming of my new Family History office and a beautiful quilt room that will hold all of my projects.

And I wonder.  What dots lie ahead??  And how will those dots connect to our past experiences??  What an exciting thing to think about!

I’ve just re-read the post below and updated it with a few more dots.  This is the passage that prompted the post:

“As you journey back in memory, you’ll see your life whole.  What may have felt at the time like a series of disconnected and chance events will take on a flow and coherence that only the passage of time could reveal.  You’re able now to see how the consequences of a choice, perhaps made casually, rippled through the years that followed.  You can see how a chance event led to other events that shaped your entire life.  Memory, in short, can reveal the links, the connections–the story–of your life.
It’s hard to exaggerate the satisfaction this kind of insight can produce.  It’s the satisfaction of feeling that your life, whatever happened in it, made sense.”

This quote is from the book called The Legacy Guide, Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life, by Carol Franco and Kent Line back (p. 3).

“I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” –Jane Austin

I am so grateful for the experiences I’ve had in my life.  I see God’s hand moving me, leading me, and directing me.  I trust Him and trust that the dots will continue to connect in my future.  I can’t wait to see how.