To Every Thing There Is A Season...

Yesterday was Molly's last regular season hockey game for St. Paul United. She has played six seasons for the team - one JV, five Varsity. For so long, she was the "little" one on the team. Now, there are other "little" ones - and she, their captain.

There will be many of these "lasts" in the next few months. So many goodbye's - some recognized, some not - as her childhood comes to a close. These farewells would be so much harder for her if the anticipation and excitement of new adventures weren't singing their siren song so loud.

My job of nurturing, teaching, and disciplining is nearly done. I hear her little two year old voice again telling me "I do it, Mama". And she will - oh, she will. But there will be a huge emptiness inside for me as I learn to adjust to yet another new phase in my life. An emptiness I know will be filled to overflow with the joy of watching her learn all she needs to become the person she was meant to be.

Ironically, at yesterday's game a woman stopped me right after the Senior Presentation ceremony. And she asked me, still holding the rose given to me in Molly's honor, "how will I ever be able to give up my dog"? My son and daughter have shown me how. When it is Belle's turn to move on, the emptiness she will leave behind will be filled with the satisfaction of knowing she is doing what she was raised to do - to serve others with love and joy.

Thousands of years ago, Ecclesiastes said it best..

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

No-one can have only one "time" at the exclusion of all others. We must experience them all to really appreciate what that "time" means in this journey we call life. I love you, Molly. Thank you for sharing this time with me.