There’s an old country song called “The Night Before Life Goes On” that chronicles the night
before a young, small-town girl moves away to college leaving behind her tiny
community and her high school sweetheart.
It’s full of all the things that make a good country/western song…but that’s
about all it has going for it.
The title though,
it plays through my head over and over again as each new season of life is
ushered in. The night before college
graduation. The night before walking down the aisle. The night before becoming a mother. The night before leaving your childhood home
for the final time. The night before the job change. The night before life goes on -we’ve all been
there, in that bittersweet place of letting go of what “once was” and embracing
all that lies ahead…both the good and the bad.
Sometimes “the
night before,” comes and goes without us even realizing it. The night before the diagnosis. The night before the car accident. The night
before the truth comes out. The night
before the job loss. The night before
the mass shooting. The night before life changes completely. That’s when it’s
the most cruel, when you don’t even have the opportunity to savor that last
moment of normalcy before everything you’ve ever known becomes unfamiliar and
foreign.
Today I came
across this photo of some of my very best friends from college. It was the night before graduation and we
were snapping pictures across campus enjoying being together one last
time. In the years since, we’ve had weddings, baby showers,
and even girl’s weekends, but it was the very last time we were all together as
a collective group. It’s not a sad
story, really. We’ve stayed in touch and have gone on to be blessed with
amazing careers, incredible personal experiences, and wonderful families – I just wonder
if we had known that it would be our last time together, if we would have
savored it a little longer.
Maybe more than
the company, I wish I had savored the days when picking out a homecoming outfit
was my biggest concern, when juggling three social events was a stress trigger,
and when a bottle of wine, a chick-flick and a night in the apartment with my
best friends could mend a broken heart.
Life’s not quite
so simple these days. There’s more at
stake when you’re raising two little people, running a home, working full time,
and trying to be a good wife. But at the
core of it, some things never change.
Instead of homecoming outfits, we’re in the season of princess dresses
and tiaras, and seeing a preschool twirl across the room is the most important concern of the day. Instead of juggling three
social events in a week, we’re learning how to balance baseball practice, work
schedules, and family commitments. And even though a bottle of wine and
chick-flick won’t fix a broken heart, being surrounded by incredible women and some good chocolate can
lift the weariest of souls.
I guess what I’m
getting at is the realization that life goes on…and on…and on. Sometimes the changes are magical like a
marriage or the birth of a child, and sometimes they are unexpected. Either way, we have to learn to embrace each
new journey and both the joys and challenges it brings. Because tucked in
between the good and the bad, the planned and the unexpected, and the laughter
and tears is the precious journey we call “Life.”
Love love love.
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