To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

It really boggles my mind to think that it is already a new year. I know that logically, time hasn’t sped up or slowed its pace since the beginning of the ages when God created it, but as I see the beginnings of each new gray hair, while still able to recall being three years old, “time” becomes more and more a mystery. Has it passed? My memories seem tangible. Yet, things – and people – are changing. Things change as they become outdated and obsolete. People change by growing up; becoming more mature. I suppose I have changed, too. I feel the same, but my mirror tells me that time has, indeed, moved ahead.

The best way I know to deal with the changes is to embrace them. I’m doing my best to enjoy the changes in my life and family. My daughter is thinking more and more about life on her own. Some of her ideas startle me. I mean, I’m not quite ready to think of her moving to London, England, just yet. I choose to smile and enjoy her whims. I trust that if that really happens, God will give me the grace to say goodbye. My “little” girls are not so little anymore. They each got their ears pierced a few weeks ago and seem like little ladies now. My oldest son is changing into a young man. His voice sounds more like his dad’s than a boy’s. My baby is not really a baby. He’s becoming a little boy more each day. I am resisting the urge to wish them all back to their babyhood, because it cannot happen. Time only moves one direction, and I remind myself that I’m embracing it. I’m having to remind myself of that quite often.

I’m changing, too. I’m no longer expecting to add to our family, though as sure as I write that, something unexpected will happen. I’m trying to move closer to the “empty nest” and that’s difficult. I love babies, and I dreamed of having a full house, which God graciously gave me. I would like to keep it full. I hate to see it diminish, but again, that’s the way time moves. It is a river that ebbs and flows, raging one minute and calming the next, reflecting every color of the rainbow as it travels its course. It sustains life and takes it, never ceasing its forward surge. I move with it, trying to relax and take in the sights and sounds along the way, ever thankful for the opportunity to ride this engaging, thriving, and wild river called “life”.

I look forward to seeing what lay just around that next bend in the river.

Looking ahead with joy,