Looking Back, Taking Stock and Planning Ahead

Sometimes I step back and really try to get my head around where I am right now in my life. As a journal writer and list maker I am constantly looking back ,taking stock and planning ahead. My family hears the words "this time last week, this time last year" a lot. In the quietness of this beautiful August morning I take a deep breath and look at the place I find myself and I will try to put some of those thoughts in words for this entry. Yesterday, I sat amidst a huge crowd that filled every pew in the Trinity Church in Kingston to honor the life of a beautiful woman, a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Her ninety some year old father feebly walked down the aisle to bury his daughter and the stream of family that now must carry on without her filled the front pews. I have seen others leave long before those left behind are ready to have them go. We are constantly reminded how fragile life is and are told to be thankful for each day. The seasons of life change as quickly as the seasons themselves. As I prepare for another Fall season I think of what this one means for me. For twenty nine Septembers I entered a classroom ready to teach a group of new- to -me students. For many years I prepared for back to school for my four kids. I got myself back into the routine of early mornings, homework, school time bedtimes, packing lunches (to be honest Rita made most of my kid' s lunches back in the day when she ran the cafeteria at MCS)and Monday to Friday busyness. Now for the sixth year in a row my September takes me back to my office and my writing. The year I took off and wrote The Year Mrs. Montague Cried set the trajectory that now finds me ready to publish my fourth book and working on my sixth. I can't wait to meet up with those characters and their unfolding story when I sit down to write on Tuesday morning. The editing of The Memory Chair which we hope to have out in April will begin as well and maybe a look at the other manuscript that isn't quite ready to see the light of day. I will watch The Memory Chair unfold and become a book I can hold in my hands and add to the others in my book-ends. In May I will travel to Ontario and spend a week presenting in schools, libraries and who knows where else. I have been given these gifts; my health and well-being, the opportunity to do something I love, a place I love,and my wonderful family and friends. I am approaching another season ; sunny skies, crisp mornings,changing leaves, another harvest and so much more. "This time last year, this time five years ago." These things we know. It is the "this time next year, this time in ten years" that we do not know, but can only imagine and look forward to with the same confidence and assurance we get from looking at the past. Whatever it is that we will be given there will be gifts and challenges and we will find ourselves wherever they lead us. So for this day, I take time to be truly thankful and take the time to really see the wonder of where I am right now.