Time Passes By

There approaches a window of time when gliding on cloud ships, counting cloud bunnies, and surfing the cloud waves releases its tender hold on us and we fly on to another opportunity, another stage in our lives. Time is not just passing, but is accelerating towards fresh new opportunities, new adventures, new ephiphanies, and new questions.

I attempt in so many ways to share this actuality with the younger folks in my sphere of influence. I want them to take advantage of every opportunity in front of them and I challenge them to push their envelopes! However, I’m afraid that in their eyes, from their perspective, I’m just an old woman growing uncomfortably sentimental.

I’ve learned to communicate the gift of “senior sageness” not through talking, but with listening, and secondly, with gifting whatever my mind and hands have created. Through intentional, attentive listening, I try my hardest not to make my past life experiences a standard for others, but instead to give God permission to be as creative and original with others as He has been and continues to be with me.

If I can’t do that, then I’m doomed to bitterness, cynicism, and negativity. And how miserable is that?!?!?!

My mom was the best listener I know. Her hands were usually creating whether rolling out pie dough, stirring a pot of bubbling jam, sewing for us four sisters, or piecing a quilt. Full of teenage pronouncements, dramatic stories, and intimate questions, I would plop myself on a counter, kitchen chair, or couch and pour my heart out to her. She never interrupted my flow. I could tell she was listening by a raised eyebrow, a quirky half grin, pursed lips, or an occasional giggle. Her responses cemented in my heart these intimate vignettes of cherished, fleeting moments. It seems like just yesterday that I bounced my teenage dramas off of her. Time really does “fly!” 

How have you marked your passing of time?