~and so it was about the spring and summer~

As the seasons of our lives go, this girl is holding fast in Autumn.  Ok, ok it should probably be referred to as "late in the season" Autumn, but that doesn't even really matter.  I'm in it.  So many people I know never got the ticket to arrive here.

I did and for that I remain grateful.

I've been searching through old pictures as of late and for the life of me I don't know why.  Yet I do and each time I come across some, especially the old black and white ones, I still marvel at just how fast this thing called "life" has passed me by.  Perhaps, have you ever felt the same?

Several years back I helped my mom clean out her house before it was put up for sale.  Mom was a packrat of sorts, having grown up during the Great Depression and a time where stuff just didn't get tossed away because it appeared to have outlived its usefulness.  While down in the basement one day, I came across an old brown paper grocery bag that appeared to be pretty well spent.  I opened it up and looked inside, remembering of course my mom's admonition to always look inside of stuff before giving it a toss.  How glad I was to have actually recalled her warning, because nestled deep down was an old newspaper clipping that showed the picture of a young girl working away one Saturday morning.

And she was me.

I hadn't seen that newspaper clipping for a long time.  In fact, it had been about 30 years of a long time.  Yet as I looked at her, on bended knees shelving books at the high school library, I suddenly felt as if I was back there with her that morning in a place called Haven, Kansas.  You know when we are young, like the 16 year old shown above, we don't think much about the seasons of life.  We are perpetually in spring and summer, enjoying life and giving little thought to the consequences of the years that will follow.  

But follow they do.
At least for the most fortunate of us.

So for now I'm in Autumn and holding fast.  In this the springtime of my soon to be 62nd year, I still have much to do.  There's plenty yet to experience and I hope to find it.  Actually I've been waiting to be 62 for quite a while now and when I make it, I will rejoice.  Personally, I also think that 73 has much to offer.  If I'm still around in my 80's then  my goal shall be to reach my mother's age when she passed.  87 years of living, like my personal desire of being able to teach for 40 years, is an honorable one.  After that......  well after that I think I'll just take it one day at a time.  

Today is the 22,446th day of my life.  
It's a gift and as such, I give thanks.