...looking back and catching up
"Looking back" takes on an entirely different meaning this weekend as nearly every one I know is looking ten years back to one of our country's most tragic defining moments. Our family is no exception, but I'm saving those thoughts and comments for a post that will be published elsewhere.
Though I have no intentions of making this a "Remembering 9-11" post, it seems disrespectful to those who were most intimately affected by the indescribable horrors of that day and the days that followed to write about anything else. When tragedy or loss brings us face to face with evil and overwhelming grief and the remembrance brings fresh pain and grief, we question how life can go merrily along for others.
That's why I remember and hold onto these truths and the hope of Heaven and the assurance that though I likely will not be able to see it in the moment, God will make all things good and right and just in time.
And because a merry heart truly IS good medicine...
Four year old Gavin was here for a sleepover last night, and after bedtime prayers and we cuddled in bed to go to sleep, Gavin started coughing and turned away from me.
"I don't want you to get sick," he explained as he turned his face away from me toward the wall, "because you are old."
Truthfully, I'm already a bit insecure about being the oldest of all our grandchildren's grandmothers and I was crushed that Gavin had reached this conclusion. "You think I'm old?" I foolishly asked.
"You look old..........and you smell old."
Great.
Hoping I wasn't the only person in his "looking and smelling old" category, I asked, "Does anyone else look old?"
I expected he'd say "papa", but my heart did cartwheels when he included "minna" and "Lala" - twenty year old Emily and his young and energetic grandmother Lara - in his response.
I figured I'd leave the "smelling old" question for another time and stop the questioning while I was ahead.
{Photos} a bit of summer and fall in my Pollywog Creek backyard
