I'm watching that green haze start to come over our trees. Things starting to bloom and come to life. The Coach's yard is beautiful as always. This year the back is a project zone, but the front is still so lovely.
The seasons of life overlap - with the one before and the one that follows. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. But also seasons of young and old, raising kids, changes in vocation. Some of the seasons are sweet. Some of them bitter. Some painful and some filled with joy. I keep hearing myself say what a SWEET season we are in right now. It's not without challenges (as the 17 of us try to understand and love each other), but it's full of moments that fill my heart.
Some seasons feel like a lifetime ago.
I spent a lifetime pregnant - or it sure felt like it! 9 pregnancies in 11 years. When I see pictures of those days, it feels like an out of body experience. Ha!
I spent another lifetime nursing babies. Sleep training. Changing diapers. Potty Training. Some of those babies were easy going and some weren't. Some slept well and some didn't (and still don't). In spite of them all having the same parents, each one was SO unique and their own little person.
I spent a lifetime at elementary programs and elementary basketball games. IYKYK. That's all. OK... I miss the programs, they were precious. Maybe a future season will have me back there with grand babies, Lord willing.
I've spent another lifetime at sporting events. Our troops who started out as football, volleyball and basketball players managed to pick up track, tennis, soccer and cross-country, along the way. So thoughtful of them, don't you think? And don't you dare suggest to the remaining high schooler that he should try out baseball or golf. Thank you. My hindquarters have spent many a season on bleachers. For the most part, it's a been a blessing.
I spent a lifetime with toddlers and babies on my ankles trying to fix dinner and help with homework, desperate for the Coach to walk in the door. That pre-dinner hour is rough with babies. I know if you're there right now, you get it.
I've spent a lifetime with moody teens. Or has it been thousands of lifetimes? Some days have felt like years. Jury is still out on the final outcome, but most days I'm betting on the Coach and me. And when they get to the other side of that season, they sure are great humans.
I spent a lifetime in the oncology clinic and hospital floor. Entire lifetimes over and over watching my boy battle cancer. More than a lifetime of heart break and crying out to God. And here, six years later, I couldn't be more grateful to have been the one God allowed to watch him win that battle. What a gift.
But in spite of all of the lifetimes we've lived?
I'm going to spend the rest of my life soaking in those grand baby snuggles. A lifetime reading "Seven Silly Eaters" and swinging on the porch and Face timing the aunts. I'm going to spend what life I have left loving my people and watching them laugh and taking in the JOY of seeing them in their own lives, loving Jesus and others, serving so well, living lifetimes of their own and getting to have a front row seat.
I want to enjoy another lifetime of birthday family dinners and printed out pictures of gifts I didn't order in time. Homemade meatballs and sheet cake and the candles I always forget to buy. Mema's birthday banner and Grandmother's birthday balloons and home movies from when we had to use an actual video camera. A lifetime of "bumping up and down in my little red dragon."
I hope for at least another lifetime to share every day with my Coach. Pouring out our thoughts while we run, watching a show while holding hands on the couch, making each other laugh, arguing debating over theology (I'm difficult like that), going on coffee dates, being partners in every part of life. Outside of Jesus, He has been life's greatest gift to me.
Whatever lifetimes I have left, I want to spend them thanking God for His goodness and praising Him for His faithfulness. A lifetime singing of the goodness of God. It will never be enough.
