Kids

I am home. Back in Charlottesville, Virginia. I came back a month earlier than planned because my daughter, Kelly went into the hospital after having four grand mal seizures in one night. She was out before I even got home, but scheduled to go back in on October 15th for more tests. Hopefully this is all leading to brain surgery and a seizure free life for her.

The photo above is of her, my daughter Laurie, and myself, taken at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts last week. Laurie just bought a house in the suburbs of Richmond and we had a girls night out there. I have a date with my son on Tuesday, so I hope to post a photo of him as well. He is a student at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, with a major in basketball : )

So, being home now I am looking for work, picking up catering jobs, and wondering what the next adventure will be. Thinking about what I may want to be when I grow up. Fearing the growing up. My daughter Laurie said to me today: "I don't want to be a grown up anymore; I want to be a kid again without any responsibilities." I said: "You can be someday when you reach your 40s or so."

I wrote a while ago about "Life is Good" vs. "Life is"; well, life is a lot of things: good, bad, happy, sad, etc. Life too is often difficult. But difficulties help us to grow. Everything that happens to us in life, decisions that we make, people that we meet, friends we connect with, all make us what we are. Our experiences from yesterday mold us into who and what we are today. I wouldn't trade any of it. This makes me think of baby chicks and butterflies....

Have you ever watched a baby chick slowing emerging from its shell? It's quite a process. Difficult for the little chick no doubt. But, did you know that if you "help" the little guy, you actually hurt him? The difficult process the chick goes through actually strengthens him for life outside that shell. It strengthens his body and his wings and makes him ready to face the world. The same is true for butterflies. When the time comes for the butterfly to emerge from her cocoon, she has to do it on her own, slowly pushing her way out, strengthening her wings as she struggles so that when she emerges she can fly! Without this struggle her wings would not have the strength to send her into flight.

So life is. If it's difficult at the moment, it's making you stronger, better able to cope in the world, and preparing you for the great adventures to come~