Statute of Limitations

For six years, sow your fields, 

and for six years prune your vineyards

and gather their crops.

But in the seventh year, 

the land is to have a Sabbath of rest,

a Sabbath to the LORD.*

At the end of every seven years

you must cancel debts...

and let [your servants] go free.**

*Leviticus 25:3 (NIV)

**Deuteronomy 15:1, 12

On these passages, at least in part, the concept of a Statute of Limitations is based in Common Law.

Seven years...

My wonderful husband died seven years ago today.  Last year I marked the day with THIS post.

Seven years...

I have decided It Is Time for me to enact my own Statute of Limitations, to call for a Sabbath...

not from remembering him

not from remembering our marriage

not from being thankful for his life

not from being thankful for his legacy -- my children --

BUT

from the compulsion to publicly mark those special days

upon every anniversary 

or

birthday

INSTEAD

I will carry on the memories in my home

lovingly hung with photographs

I will light a candle 

in the morning

and 

in the evening

at my prayers

I will hug my children

even across cyber-space

and acknowledge and honour

their choices about remembering

even while I take a rest

I believe that God has new things

for Howard and me now.

It is time.

Rest peacefully, my love.

"For I know the plans I have for you",

declares the LORD,

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope

and a future."*

Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; 

do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert

and streams in the wasteland.**

*Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

**Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)