I celebrated my 70thbirthday this August. That fact in and of itself is enough to make 2018 memorable, but this past year is significant for several other reasons.
For one thing, this past November we were blessed with the birth of grandson #3,Hugo who joins grandson #1, Walter, who turned 3 this year, and grandson #2 , Arthur, who turned 1 this year. How fast time does fly. “I blinked my eyes and in an instant, decades had passed.” *
We spent most of the winter, spring, and summer of 2018 preparing and selling our beloved Wayside home. God guided every step and with His hand on every detail and the help of many dear friends along the way we bought and moved into a lovely loft in downtown Hopkins this fall.
When we sorted and throwed, we found Christophers’s baby teeth, Andre’s childhood yellow bear, Claire’s handmade rocking horse, and in the process we revisited past memories: precious, breathtaking, historic or not-so-historic moments captured mostly in the photographs of my mind at age seventy.
As I review them I wax nostalgic and pensive, almost incredulous at the wrinkles on my face and in denial of the steady slow aging in this frail body, keenly aware of the need to preserve these memories whether mundane or extraordinary for posterity.
The hourglass sand of my life flows quickly to the other side so I will spend the time writing my stories and praying the Lord of All to guide each day for my Good and for His Glory.
I wrote this simple poem/prayer while I was in college over fifty years ago but it continues even today to frame how I look at the coming year. I hope it does the same for you.
What will you write on the blank pages, Lord?
Will it be happy or sad?
I know you will lead me lovingly thru.
So always in that I’ll be glad.
My Future I bring you.
I give you its Pen.
I pray that you’ll take it and write
Whatever is best for me, blest for me, now;
For you are my Author in Life.
© 1 January 2019
Barbara LaTondresse
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*Quote from Green, J. (2018). Taste the Wild Wonder. Createspace
Images courtesy of:
https://www.shiftfrequency.com/sands-of-time-slide-through/
http://clipart-library.com/clipart/8cxngqK6i.htm
Night Lights and Morning Joys 