After talking to a friend at work today about my old job and time spent in York and teaching the other day using a children's book I was given as a parting gift before leaving DE from when I worked nights at a toy store after teaching during the day when I lived at the beach, this past week has had me looking backwards a lot and missing my old haunts as I reminisce about the "good ol' days". Even though it's been five years since I taught with LIU and over a decade since I lived in Lewes, DE, and I love my job now, I still miss those days from time to time. I was just starting my teaching career as a college graduate when I lived in Delaware and was terribly homesick for PA and my college friends and friends from home. I remember talking to my mom on the phone at the time and saying how cut off from the world I felt when I first moved there. Of course this was before it was common to have internet everywhere and at your fingertips, I had just acquired a cell phone for the first time, and it was also long before social media was what it is now.
Nowadays when a move to a different state happens, you still feel that sense of connection to an extent thanks to the technology we have out there. Just this afternoon, while waiting to meet my friend, I received the most adorable picture text message from my sister-in-law out in California of our new niece. She was sleeping with a cute little smile on her face and one of her eyebrows looked like it was arch. Such innocence. Such peace. Perhaps that is some of what I'm missing from thinking back on days from the past....back when everything was still new, you took it for granted your loved ones would always be there, and the future was unknown. Nowadays, things are new in a completely different way today and the future is still unknown. I can't help but think how new things are now for my friend, Jayme, who's dad passed away the other night. I met Jayme in college through my former roommate, Ashley. Jayme, the fun loving gal from college, was responsible for our Cedar Point road trips, showing us around when we visited her in Detroit and saw Kenny Chesney at Ford Field, fun beach trips, and helped Ash, Ash's mom, and me to paint Ash's new townhouse when she first bought it. Jayme is also the only girl in her family with three brothers, like me, and all of her siblings have names that start with the letter, J, which is cool! Anyhow, it was quite the shock that her dad was diagnosed with cancer a mere six months ago and has gone too soon being only one year younger than my Dad. I can't imagine what this new life for Jayme and her family will look like and my heart aches for them. All I can offer are my tears and prayers and if you would be so kind to do the same, please offer up a prayer.
So here's to being grateful for and appreciating those in our lives now while we still can and looking ahead while also remembering and cherishing our pasts. I know I'm certainly looking forward to being home for the weekend after this past week of feeling a bit melancholy and homesick. I also can't wait to see my parents in light of my dad's recent sickness that took over the last part of the summer. We'll have a lovely time I hope even if it is going to rain all weekend (bah humbug!). We haven't been home since before the wedding so it will be nice to be back home. We were supposed to attend a fall foliage festival in a quaint mountain town so hopefully the rain won't put a damper on it. If anything, perhaps the glistening water will make the colorful mountain leaves sparkle all the more!
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