Holly & Andy – Natural, Spiritual, Conversational

I had the wonderful pleasure of spending a couple of days this Memorial Day weekend with two of my very dear friends, Holly and Andy.  They are, in a word, inspirational.  Spending time with them at their country home is like taking a step out of worldly living and going on a little pastoral adventure, complete with dairy cows and free range chickens.  Their love for God – and one another – is something that should be captured in a Nicholas Sparks novel (or perhaps a Katharine K. McNeill novel, one of these days).

Holly and I grew up together.  My brother and I took piano lessons from her mom, then later she and I took dance classes together.  She and I both had our first point solos during the same recital.  She was the Lilac Fairy and I was the Silver Fairy, both from Sleeping Beauty.  After she stopped dancing to spend more time with her horses, I started spending the night at her house, going riding with her on said horses, and joining her family for the many themed parties they threw. 

I was always intrigued by the differentness of her family.  Holly and her two sisters were home-schooled, they could all sew amazing outfits, play multiple musical instruments, and they could sing like angels.  Their family had rather strict dating rules at which I admittedly scoffed, and they attended a non-denominational church, which was an entirely new experience for me.  I started going to youth group with Holly and this was the first time I ever really experienced praise music.  I was used to my traditional Presbyterian hymns and I found a lot of joy in the freedom of this non-droning style of praise and worship.  (As an adult, I now vacillate between hymns and contemporary Christian.  I believe God loves BOTH forms, as long as your aim in singing is to praise and honor Him.)

The thing that struck me then (and still holds true, to this day) about Holly was how firmly she would stand upon her convictions.  She knew what she believed in and why, and she would defend her beliefs to whomever, whenever the need arose.  Even if that meant she had to defend those beliefs to me, her best friend.

I met my first true boyfriend, Levi, through her.  I was fourteen, and at the time Holly strongly believed that the idea of courting was the proper path toward Christian marriage.  (Courting, of course, is the idea of a guy asking a girl’s father/parents for permission to spend time with her and get to know her with the intention of heading toward marriage.  This is in place of traditional dating, and the intent is similar to the old idea of being betrothed.)  She and I got into MULTIPLE debates/arguments about my relationship with him, and to my recollection, these were our only arguments.  In the end, I only dated Levi for six months, and she eventually had a change of heart about the concept of courting.  And thank goodness, because good old-fashioned boy-likes-girl dating is what led her to Andy.

I’ll not hash out their whole love story, but if you ever meet them, DO ask about it, for it’s lovely and adorable and God-ordained.  Suffice it to say that I had the privilege of standing at the front of the church with them on the day they vowed before God and man to be best friends forever.

In the nearly six years they’ve been married, I have watched these two build a life and a family that seek God’s will first, and they do so with such honesty and candor.  They don’t put on airs for others, but rather they readily admit to the challenges they face as a family who strongly believes in living naturally as God intended.  They own a dairy cow, Little Red, and twice a day Andy puts on his cowboy hat (literally!) and goes out to milk her.  They make all their own dairy products (Adam and Eve didn’t have pasteurization methods!), and she makes all of their bread.  They’re raising free range chickens that will soon add to their resources, and they buy humane, organic beef.  They have a huge garden, of course, and there’s not a drop of sugar in their house, other than what’s found in fresh blueberries, or grapes, or honey (which is what they use to sweeten their organic, French pressed coffee… some of the best I’ve ever had!).  For goodness’ sake, they grind their own wheat!

I’m always so impressed with the way they live, but that actually has less to do with the logistics of their eating habits and child-rearing methods (they have three GORGEOUS kids) than it does with their hearts.  These two friends of mine have the sweetest souls of two people I’ve ever known, and their pure, God-seeking ways never fail to leave me feeling blessed after hanging out with them.

They told me as we were driving home from church on Sunday that what I do (in my job) is such a blessing to so many kids.  They told me that my ministry is giving of my time and talents to my students.  This is something I’ve known for a while, deep down, but it was one of those things I didn’t know I needed to hear until the words were coming out of Andy’s mouth.  Holly said, just after that, “God’s giving you these opportunities NOW to teach and dance because He knows that in the future, at a time after your singleness, you won’t be called to devote yourself to this ministry as whole-heartedly because then you’ll have the ministry of a family that will be your priority.”  Wow, Holly.  Way to hit the nail on the head. J

I believe my favorite part of the weekend spent with them was on Saturday night.  Holly and I got back from her little sister’s dance show around 11:30, and we all wanted a snack.  Andy and I sat in the middle of the hardwood living room floor (just because) and talked about the denominations of our upbringings, as Holly popped a HUGE bowl of all natural white kernel popcorn and topped it with natural homemade melted butter (courtesy of Little Red) and sea salt.  Holly joined us on the floor, and the three of us then proceeded to DEVOUR this deliciousness and have immensely enjoyable conversation for the next hour (though, for the life of me, I can’t remember now specifically what we talked about).  As we said our goodnights, we vowed that we must visit more so we’ll stop staying up talking until 12:30 a.m. every time I’m with them.

I recently wrote a statement about Holly in my journal, and after this weekend (in addition to some other recent visits), I find it to be true of Andy as well.  The reason these two are such Kindred Friends of mine is because they are “vessels of God’s direct conversations here on Earth within my life.”  And I thank God upon each remembrance of them.

KMc 5/30/11