Why do my kids love to hear stories about Ern and me when we were kids? His checking out the haunted house story, his speeding in his wagon down the hill toward the busy street, my childhood tree house adventures--they fascinate the kids. If our stories are about us when we were almost the same age as the kids are now, so much the better. Even Lethei loves to talk about what is for "her age."
But they enjoy sharing in our adult adventures too. Lukas told everybody he talked to for several days about our tenth anniversary. He seemed to think it really exciting that his mom and dad had been married for ten years. What a day that was too! Ern had offered to share it with me but ended up spending most of the morning visiting a man in our church struggling with cancer and then we drove to his grandparents to visit with Ern's parents and some aunts and an uncle of his while they were sorting through his grandparents things (they've just moved to an elderly persons' home). We did manage to grab a burger at A and W for some quality not quantity (twenty minutes?) time alone together.
But it was a special day. Ern brought me breakfast in bed and gave me forget me nots and ivy (which I'd had in my wedding bouquet and he remembered) in a "tin" (the metal for 10 years) hanging pot. I gave him a book and a card. Then friends at church, after hearing about our day, offered to babysit the kids a few days later, while we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant with a gift card they gave us.
Now Ernie's been talking about trying to take a little get away some time this summer.
To let go of hurts and regrets, to remember the sweet, funny, and poignant moments, and enjoy making new, similarly complex memories, and pull the best from them as well, maybe I can learn w/ my kids. I just caught a fly in mid air! See, I'm not too old to accomplish new things and enjoy life, as God's giving it to me at "my age."