I’ve been thinking a lot this week about life and it’s phases. On Monday I went to Mamaw’s house, but for the first time, I didn’t cry. Her orange tree is blooming now. Despite her death and current fears about the future, I‘m reminded that seasons, even difficult ones, do pass. Life does go on.
For nearly four decades I visited Mamaw. I’d sit in her living room director’s chair, sipping a coke out of an oversized plastic coozie. She usually had the tv on but turned the volume down so we could talk. A quilt, sometimes topped with a cat, was almost always draped over her lazy-susan. Sometimes the quilt was backside up, a sure sign you were getting a quilt for an upcoming holiday.
Over the years, I enjoyed countless Oreos from her cookie jar. When Daddo was alive, I snuck them with a surgeon’s precision, just quietly enough that he wouldn’t hear the jar lid clank. Even in my 20s, if he caught me with a cookie, he’d scold me that I’d spoil my dinner.
I miss driving up and knocking on the door only to hear my grandparents holler, “you who?” I miss that Daddo would stand on the front porch getting teary eyed every time we left, watching us and remaining outside until our car drove away.
I’m so struck by phases and seasons, and how we don’t recognize them when we’re in them. Rarely when I was in these precious ordinary moments did I think of them ending. But, of course, they do. Life moves on. Seasons pass.
Today, Mamaw and her tree remind me there is reason to hope. As she always said, “this too shall pass.” When life is difficult, scary, and bleak, it is a season, not the end. After rain comes rainbows. After hardship comes spring.
If you’re feeling scared or anxious today, hang in there. Life is beautiful. It will go on.
