I swear………… I saw a ghost the other day.
Rushing through the dining room from one task to another I caught a glimpse of someone I surely recognized and had to stop and do a double take. Mary?!? Wow. There in the mirror…my mother. It’s happened.
Shoot, she looks pretty good for her age!
Yes, I have reached the age where I can now clearly see traces of my departed Mother gazing back at me in the mirror and there’s more than the numbers on the clock and calendar telling how the time has passed. If I’m honest about the sum I have to admit that even the roughest of the years have been sweet and kind.
I’m in the sorting stage. Toys, books, pictures, papers and homeschool supplies…sorting what leaves, what stays and where it all belongs now.
With the wedding of my oldest on the nearing horizon, another one deciding life matters for the future and only two more years with the last at home, it’s necessary now to see my children, myself and my role through a different lens.
Though somewhat hazy and bittersweet, the memories have kept their fond flavor and can make sense while taking their proper place. Hanging up one hat, I begin to put on another knowing I must not — can not–hold on to what was never mine. This is the way it should be. It’s ok. It’s good.
In this next season I’ve been entrusted with much to hold and to behold as well. This realization was made clear to me as I was filling out some volunteer paperwork for our local homeschool association. There was a line (how I never noticed this before is beyond me) asking “veterans” to consider mentoring new homeschool families.
Let’s see, I’ve been homeschooling fourteen years so that makes me–seriously?! A veteran? Me?
When did THAT happen?
