I am going to physical therapy for my back.
Three times a week for the next four weeks.
I have been through this before.
Even though, it is a workout, it is beneficial and helps tremendously.

As I was on the treadmill today, before I began my routine, I saw her car.
It was a friend from church; a young mom with four boys.
Four boys who consider our house home away from home.
Four boys who love to come here and play with all of my children’s old toys.

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He pulled up the driveway, waving as he went.
He was home for his sister’s graduation.
Now he was heading back to Virginia to continue studying for the bar exam.
He graduated law school and headed right back to the books.

A little of my heart went with him.

He left the other day with his clothes in the back of his car.
His guitar and a bag of favorite snacks were neatly packed.
He would begin his new job only a few weeks after his college graduation.
He is now a youth pastor and will be greatly used to teach young people about Jesus.

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Before cell phones and social networks this is how we figured out where our friends were.

That post was on the Facebook wall of both of my sons.
Another boy tagged every boy that grew up in our neighborhood.
Then the back and forth conversation began.

The post came up on my news feed and made me smile.
The picture was a sidewalk and a walkway in front of a house.
Bikes were strewn over the lawn.

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One day she decided that she didn’t like the placement of her eye.
An eye can be an eye anywhere, she thought.
How convenient if one eye was on the side of my head.
She purposed to find someone who could move the eye for her.

Many others felt that the eye was perfect where it was.
God designed it that way, they said over and over.
The woman who wanted her eye moved found others who wanted their eye moved.
They banded together, with loud voices, and relentlessly tried to change people’s minds.

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A friend of mind posted something on her Facebook page.
It was a simple illustration that you would see in a children’s book.
All grown-ups were once children…but few of them remember it.
It is a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, taken from The Little Prince.

I had been thinking about similar thoughts, so I was delighted when I saw her post.
I commented.
If I don’t remember…or you don’t remember…we can remind each other since there are many shared memories!

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My daughters took me to see the new movie, Mom’s Night Out.
I have not laughed that hard and that consistently in a movie for a long time.
Every mother can relate to the main character’s struggle.
Every husband and child can see himself or herself in the family members.

The young mother in the movie needed to be validated.
The young mother needed time to think, to breathe, to imagine, and to be still.
The young mother was tired.
She loved her husband and her children desperately, but she was exhausted.

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The picture said it all.
Two little brothers playing with bubbles.
The bubbles floated all around them.
They were hugging; laughing with pure joy.

Something so simple became pure entertainment.
It reminded me of the old refrigerator boxes that transformed into a house.
Weeks of play in a cardboard box.
Elegant doors that flapped open; windows that were adorned with marker drawn curtains.

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For those of us with adult children, it is particularly delightful when they come over.
It is a time of sharing hearts and catching up.
It is a time of listening to dreams and seeing glimmers of those dreams on the horizon.
It is familiarity at its best.

Gone are the days of bandaging knees.
Gone are the days of snacks in special bowls and juice in favorite cups.
Now those knees are ones you kneel on to pray for those adult children.
Now those sippy cups have become favorite mugs to enjoy a cup of tea and conversation.

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It was a preschool field trip.
A busload of four-year old children and some parent volunteers.
One of those volunteers would be me.
I was very anxious to spend the day with my youngest child.

If your parent went on the bus with you, you were able to sit with them.
If a child did not have a parent with them, they could be assigned to you.
That day, there were enough volunteers, so my daughter and I were together.
We were going to a beautiful public garden.

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In the days of the one room schoolhouse, education was much more rigorous than today.
Just look at The Original Blue Back Speller and peruse the spelling lists.
I wonder if many high school students could spell and define most of those words.
McGuffey readers were also used, beginning in the mid 19th century.

The readers became progressively more challenging as you went to the next level.
The readers at the advance level contained essays from well known writers.
American writers such as John Milton, Lord Byron, and Daniel Webster.
The readers emphasized spelling, vocabulary, and formal public speaking.

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