Today,
our Sunday school lesson was on Ecclesiastes. To start the class the teacher
played “Turn, Turn, Turn” by The Byrds. I won’t try to quote the whole thing
but go read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. Then listen to the Byrds song. Turn, Turn, Turn
Between
both of those I remembered a book I read years ago when I was maybe thirteen, “A
Time to Love, A Time to Mourn” by Paige Dixon. You’ll cry, but you really
should read it, great story.
Then
I remembered a conversation last week with some ladies we go to church with. Last
Sunday she was mentioning the recent marriage of her next to youngest son. She
also, not too long ago announced her only daughter giving her a grandchild. The
thing is her youngest son is about nine years younger than his next youngest
sibling and he is only in middle school right now.
I
asked her and she confirmed, all of her other children are now married and
except for the one newly married they all have at least one child. One of the
other ladies there commented she’d be an empty nester if not for her surprise
baby.
Then
I went home and was scrolling through Facebook. I happened to see a post by one
of my cousins many children congratulating her and her husband on all their
years of marriage. It included pictures, of my cousin, her husband, their
children and all their grandchildren (counted seventeen). She has at least one
still in high school and she once mentioned her younger kids going to school
with some of her older grandchildren.
My
cousin, like the lady at church, is in about her mid-fifties and still not an
empty nester. Only my cousin doesn’t have any nine year age gaps between any of
her kids.
Then
there is me and my husband.
My
prolific cousin is younger than I am by a couple of years and my five children
were all born within the span of a decade. (My oldest will soon be 27 and my
youngest turned 17 just a few months ago.)
In
case anybody hasn’t counted recently, I’m far from an empty nest.
Of
my four adult children only the oldest, the nearly 27 year old has moved out.
She is in fact, as of this month, married for a full year now.
My
second child moved out briefly but health issues forced her to move back home
and she has been unable to move out or otherwise take care of herself, at least
financially, since. She is hoping and praying to find the means to move out,
preferably soon, but it hasn’t happened yet.
My
next to the youngest, who turned eighteen just before last Christmas, insists
he and his best friend are going to move in together just as soon as they both
find full-time jobs and they can find an apartment. The job issue is holding
things up at the moment.
My
youngest son? One, he isn’t an adult yet. Two, he insists he’s never moving
out. (Autism spectrum, he hates change.)
The
only other child we’ve got is my youngest daughter. Starting in high school she
began telling us her plans for college. At first she was saying she would move
off to college right out of high school, but as she investigated her options
she decided it would be cheaper to live here and start at the local community
college.
She’ll
graduate next May.
She’s
been saying since she started at this college she’d move out and on to where
she plans to continue her education as soon as she finishes here. HOWEVER, she
has also, on occasion mentioned the possibility of getting her bachelor’s
degree locally and still live at home for two more years. She hasn’t said she’d
for sure be staying for quite some time but until she actually settles on a
university, there is still the possibility. (After all we do have universities
and four year colleges here.)
This
all brings me to something my husband said the other day. “We could be empty
nesters in the next year.”
After
considering everything I just stated I concluded: Only if the three with plans
to move out don’t have those plans thrown awry or they never come to fruition
because, two, you never know what surprises life is going to hand you. AND
three, if the one not planning to move out actually changes his mind OR we move
out.
And
then in my mind I heard. “To everything there is a season, Turn, Turn, Turn…”
Kind
of funny that very song would be played as part of our very next Sunday school lesson.
Now tell me why I chose a fiddler on a roof for the picture for this post.
Smile. Make the day a brighter day.
