This weekend, I experienced that feeling of time passing so quickly it slips through our fingers like water, yet also staying the same from year to year to year. Two daughters and one son and I travelled to IL for the 90th birthday of the children's grandmother Evy, (my former mother-in-law).
In the span of a few minutes, we visited the graves of my children's father and grandfather, then the house I lived in when the first two kids were babies, and "main street" Fairbury which was lined with people waiting for a homecoming parade. The house had changed enough that I passed it the first time. Trees that were saplings when we moved in thirty-five years ago now tower above the roofline, and the owners had added a front porch.
But the corn fields, the small town atmosphere, the horizon-to-horizon dark skies at night, the flies (which thankfully we don't have in FL), the crickets, and Evy never change. She has now been a part of my life for 37 years. Seems incredible. Yet there was also the sense of the fragility of life in this celebration. Evy speaks as if each day is very precious, and she might not celebrate many more birthdays, in spite of our promises to be with for her 100th birthday. How many great-granchildren will she have by then, we tried to guess?
She asked me to say the "Grace" at the family dinner. That was one of those "matriarch" moments. I am the second in line--oldest in my family and second oldest member of her family. I asked everyone to hold hands, to reach out to one another as individuals, and as one in a family. I thanked God for giving her to us and I know she was thanking Him for giving us to her.
So, hug the ones you love and hold them close today because life moves quickly, and we are here for just a blink of the eye in the universe's time. And what is most important is the love of family that transcends time.
