Day 28 – goodbye gates

This won’t be our last goodbye.  There is still work to be done.  But the sun peeked out for a moment when I arrived today and it seemed a good time to take a picture.  How many times have we walked through these gates?  In all seasons.  Sometimes all four of us, sometimes just one or two.  In May, we had our family pictures taken on the other side of these gates, under that beautiful magnolia, the bride, the groom, our family growing.  We have dashed through these gates on rainy days, strolled through in the summer, looking forward to a day at the lake.  The doors were almost always unlocked.  We were expected.  Welcome.  Soon we will finish the task of moving out and lock those doors for the last time.  We will walk through the empty rooms, each one of us calling up important memories.  But for today, I am just saying goodbye to these lovely gates.

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one year ago . . .

there was this puzzle on our dining room table, an extra car in the driveway, and three of us for dinner most nights.                                              Much has changed this last year.   Our nest is really empty now – both girls out of college and on their own.  We have grown comfortable with this new season of life.  I find I do not dwell on what is different much. 

Life is good.

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places to write

She wrote on the first page “you always need a place to write things down” and she is right.  I am caught unaware this week.  Feeling as though we are in another season of transition.  She has been living away from home for 5 years now.  And yet this feels different, stirs emotions that I did not anticipate.  I sometimes wonder what impression my various journals will leave when I am gone.  I am pretty random about journal writing.  I carry one in my purse, have one in my car, next to my bed,on my desk.  I want to be able to write as I am moved.  This one is new, a Mother’s Day gift, and I am wondering if I might be more intentional with this journal.  I see people with journals that they carry around daily.  They get worn and have that look of being well used.  I resist this path but maybe now, in this transition season, maybe this will be the journal that will catch those words, thoughts, memories, questions.

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