Presence, Success

A Little Melancholy

May 13, 2023

I am trying not to feel too bad about the passage of time.

I knew in some part of my head that my children’s school days would not last forever.

It just always seemed like they would.

There would always be another Monday morning where we were running late and had to drive a little too fast down the hill to make it to school on time. There would always be another email from the parent club asking for help, inviting folks to join a committee, to be a bigger part of what was going on at the school.

I was a faithful helper in my kids’ classrooms through elementary school, but did less as they got older. I confess that I haven’t done much at all to help at the high school. I admired the parents who showed up and gave their time. I was grateful for them. Maybe I thought that someday I would make a little more time to be a bigger part of all the goings on.

But I didn’t.

And now?

It’s too late.

My son will be graduating in two weeks, and the twice a day drive I’ve made for the last years to drop him off and pick him up at day’s end will not be something that I have to do anymore.

(That I get to do anymore.)

Sure, it will be good to save some money on gasoline, some wear on my trusty, older car. Continue Reading…

Power

New Glasses Reality Check

May 6, 2023

I think that there is something wrong with my new glasses.

I look much older in them than I did in my old ones.

It can’t be that my old glasses were weak. It must be that my new ones are too strong, that they are magnifying everything! Sure, I can see better. But what I’m seeing also includes my face which is three years older than the last time I got glasses.

The good Costco optometrist told me that my new prescription is three clicks stronger than my old one.

Three clicks apparently make a difference.

My face had changed in ways I couldn’t easily see before.

I noticed it right after I put them on, the first time I looked in a mirror. What was that red spot on my chin? What were those pores? And wrinkles! Oh, the wrinkles!

I was confused at first. Had something happened to my face?

It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.

I got older. My new glasses just helped me see it.

It’s a gift, I know, to mature. Nothing to complain about. “Better than the alternative,” as my Mom always used to say.

I guess I had been wandering through the world these last years with eyes that were not as sharp as they used to be. One of the benefits of that, apparently? Not seeing my aging face with crystal clear precision. In my old glasses, the world seemed softer, less harsh. I guess I did, too.

It’s good to have new glasses, though.

(There’s nothing wrong with them after all.)

It’s a gift to have the resources to get new glasses, a gift to walk through the world and see things more clearly.

Even myself. Wrinkles and all.