2011 seems like a long time ago....

09-28-2011 7:18:58 AM CST

Time Warp

Last Friday night, my husband and I rented a couple of $1 movies from the box down the road. We watched the first one and then Ken decided he didn't want to watch the second one. It was Jane Eyre, which he would have loved if he could have endured the initial protestations of his manliness.... and I dearly loved the movie. As I was watching it, Ken was in the other room on the computer....it was cool outside and the windows were open, with a breeze blowing in. It was dark in the room and I was very cozy wrapped up in my blanket. Something about the night reminded me of when we were first married, almost 30 years ago. I was reminiscing about those days but embracing these days and suddenly I had this feeling of time literally flashing by. Here we were, a couple, having a nice Friday night..... and the images of a packed life flashed from here to there. No, we haven't raised four children to adulthood. Surely not. How does a life that was so incredibly full and busy and filled with conversations, schedules, school, extracurricular activities, so many sports events, corrections, disciplines, distractions, meals, meals, meals....suddenly shift in a moment, it seems? Like a u-turn on a busy highway. It couldn't have happened overnight, but it sure seems like it did. Our first-born son married 3 years ago. Our two last sons have moved into separate apartments, both preparing to marry precious women in the next few weeks. Our youngest, our daughter, is off at college and very busy with studies and sports. When we go to sleep at night, we don't have to think about shutting doors or placing fans strategically to ward off noise. There are no giant feet bounding down the stairs. There are no monster appetites to fill at mealtimes, in fact, now we're spending a great deal of time trying to beat down our own appetites that threaten to send us to an early grave. When our youngest son, Jesse, moved out last week, I heard him talking with his Dad and hauling out the rest of his junk. It seemed bittersweet, but tolerable, until a few days later when I surmised that this was not him leaving for school....and that he will be back starving at semester break. No, that was his last tornado through the house. The things that I took for granted, the noises, the talk, the thumps, the finger marks all over the ceiling, the irritating need to make supper.... those things are not there, in a forever kind of way. Older women tried to tell me about this, but it seemed we were way too busy for that to happen.