“God, give me Patience, and I want it right now!” Cliché but true. Especially for me. But this year I’ve had to have a lot of patience. While I do want things right now, I’m learning that there is usually a greater purpose for the waiting.

As with the repairs on our house: the constant delays are resulting in a better job overall. Extensive water damage is “A” way to have a total remodel, although not a way I recommend. By the end of July, ServePro was able to return all our personal possessions that they had kept in storage all these months. There were some nice surprises. Two pieces of furniture, an entertainment center and a coffee table that my husband built, that we thought had been destroyed, were returned in good shape. The coffee table has a one small water stain left that my husband said he can cover with another layer of polymer. And if that doesn’t work, he’ll sand it down and redo the top. I was also happy to see the vanity/dresser that had once been my sister’s (my nephew offered it to me after my sister passed away back in 2013.) There is a lot of sentimental value there, and I’ll be able to use it again soon. Plus, our kitchen will be way better than it was before. We will still have to wait for the last things to be done—painting the stairwell, installing the cupboards in the kitchen, installing the new doors … plus all the unpacking of all those boxes … we should be back in it this month.

Second is the waiting, and waiting, for my new book. Originally, it would have been released this month, BUT: during revisions, we changed the title to: Douglass Houghton: Michigan’s Pioneer Geologist, Doctor, and Teacher. The illustrator, Joanna Walitalo, took her time to do a truly excellent job using paintings, drawings, and other art works from the first half of the 1800s to create accurate scenes in pen and ink for each chapter. Then, she found a treasure through a friend of hers. In Chapter 7 of the book, I had described how surveyors back then often carved their survey data into the trunk of a tree—so many degrees north, or west, or south, etc., of this spot from the closest established meridian. I had obtained one photograph of such marks from the Houghton County Historical Museum as an example, and Joanna had used that to produce her illustration for that chapter. Then her friend, Zak Merril, gave her the photo of a tree he had found with such marks, along with his permission to use it for the book.

The tree in the photo is located in Keweenaw County, Michigan, where Houghton did a lot of survey work. Zak did his graduate research on establishing timelines from tree ring data, and he is one of about five people in the United States who can verify the age of a carving based on his data collection. While still not completely verified, it is highly likely that this survey mark was made in 1844, one of the years Douglass Houghton was actively surveying the Keweenaw area of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is also highly likely, while not 100% certain, that Houghton himself made the carving. The photo will appear in color inside the back cover of the book—which is now slated for release, hopefully, in October.

Even if I have to wait longer for either the house or the book, I’m sure it will be for a good reason.“God, give me Patience, and I want it right now!” Cliché but true. Especially for me. But this year I’ve had to have a lot of patience. While I do want things right now, I’m learning that there is usually a greater purpose for the waiting.