Those that have followed me for a while know that I tend to focus on the past… the things that led me to this point in my life… well, some of them anyway. This year, those stories will continue to appear but there are so many things going on in the present that I am feeling compelled to comment on… so, here we go… just more seeking my source up the narrows….
It was warm for a January afternoon in North Carolina as I stood there staring out across the field. Cotton lay there scattered around amongst the stubs of plant stalks left behind by the mower that had clean cut the field after the harvest.
The long shadows of the coming night race toward me from the distant trees as the last remnants of the days sunlight fights to hang on among the bare branches. My mind is reflecting on the holiday season just past with all of its comings and goings… laughter and tears…. too much food and afternoon naps… long thoughtful conversations with my kids home from college for what appears to me to be the shortest break ever and I realize…. it is over.
Another holiday season is now history with some great memories to carry forward… and some not so great ones too. The semester is over for my kids… one more to go and my son is finished… at least for the time being. He and my daughter both still seeking their way into the morass we call adulthood. My mom, sister and I still seeking to find a new normal in our lives with mom’s not-quite-so-new living situation. We have thrown the last vestiges of the 2012 calendar in the trash… yep… it is over.
But just like a good book that you haven’t finished yet, there is always a new chapter. But in this one, there are only clean, white pages with nothing on them… the possibilities of what will appear on them are limitless. And so we break out our pencils and sit down and begin to write. What will be in the Chapter titled 2013?
As the sun finally lets go of the tree branches in the distance, I get back in my car and drive…. off into the next chapter.
Living Life On The Narrows 