Time: A Friend or Foe?

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged!  September first...which means it was before the school year began.  It makes sense looking back.  September was a long, crazy month.  I have some difficult children in my class this year and September is like a black hole that I don't care to remember with all it's trials and tears and tantrums.  Fast forward three months...things are SO much better!  My kiddos have shown amazing growth in so many ways.  The behavior from September is pretty much gone!  That's not to say it's an easy group now, but in comparison, it's like night and day. 
My own children have adjusted to a new school year and are thriving.  This year I have a sixth grader (what?!), a fourth grader, a first grader, a three year old, a nine month old four-legged furry baby and a pretty great guy to share it with.  Life is busy every day but it is filled with so many blessings.

This holiday season I have been noticing all the things that are the same.  The traditions that we carry out from year to year and enjoy again now like making Christmas cookies, Charlie - the special little elf that has been hanging around our house again, getting milk shakes and driving around to look at Christmas lights (yes, I know, milk shakes in the cold...fun, right?).  It's all there, all being enjoyed.

I also have been noticing all the things that are not there.  My dad will be gone for eight years in January.  I honor him in the decorations (he made me some fabulous wooden pine trees that grace my kitchen shelf display each year), I honor him in the memories being made.  My mom has moved on, changes being made as she goes.  My children are growing up.  There is evidence of that in the gifts they are receiving this year.  There is evidence of that in the pictures that I enclosed in Christmas cards.  Life never stops, it never slows down, it both stays the same and changes forever.

These are the thoughts that inspired this poem.  My little slice of life today and every day.

The winds of change blow gently
and time slides by unnoticed

It’s in the slimming of cheeks
and the growing of legs

It’s there in the deepening of voices
and in the worries that develop

Time is by our side
when we bid our birds farewell

It the gusty breeze as they fly away
found in the freedom of their new wings

It’s there in the proud tear
as they sail their own life’s ship

Time is there as we look back
on loved ones grown old

It sweeps along both pushing and pulling
raging and billowing

It’s there as we grieve our losses
comforts the heart in memories

The winds of change blow
time slides by in the blink of an eye

Merry Christmas and I hope to be back more often in the new year!