Looking Back, Looking Forward

Across the years of being a child, a teen, a young adult, a parent of young children, an empty nester and now a senior adult, I never saw myself as getting old. Funny thing is, I don’t feel mentally old (but I am forgetful at times). True, I have a funny hair color and look like a granny, but, I don’t feel physically old except for a few aches and lessening flelxibility, but the calendar and the mirror remind me than I am indeed old.

As I empty my office space so it can get a new coat of paint and a carpet update, I find many long-forgotten treasures. They remind me of my journey across the decades: photos, scrapbooks, shelves filled with books and assorted trinkets that now need to be judged: keep, I’m-not-sure-yet, pass along, or toss.

The I’m-not-sure-yet box is overflowing making me realize I have attachments I need to deal with (mostly books to read that were in my ‘some day’ I’ll read them pile).  Perhaps that giant pile and my love of visiting the oublic library as a young child was an early indication that I would someday write books myself. That thought makes me smile and hope that it was a happy premonition. I never expected to write a single book let along half a dozen. Each day I’ve written or read books, worked with kids and adults, met new people, travelled to distant places and enjoyed the natural world around me has been a blessing that I look FORWARD to continuing.