LIVING LIFE

Spring activities are under way. The softball. soccer, and baseball practices are done, and now the games are in full swing, no pun intended. :-)
 Nature is stirring, the ground  is starting to warm and soften from rising temperatures. Everything is slowly waking up from being dormant through the winter.
When nature starts to wake it takes it's time, first little green shoots appear out of the ground, then tiny buds appear on the daffodils and crocuses, and without notice, the blazing colors of cherry blossoms, and apple blossoms are coloring our world.
Daffodils, crocuses, the azalea's. The new blades of grass so green. Oh, the  beautiful bounty God has blessed us with!  
  We're waking up also. No, we haven't slept all through the winter, but we definitely were not as active as we were in the spring. Lets face it, indoor activities are almost nil and not as much fun as the outside ones. There are exceptions of course, and those are for the people who like to ski, ice skate, or sled ride. They are the happy campers, unless the snow days are few and far between.
 The die hard golfers check the weather for days they can still get out to golf, the bikers keep biking til they have to concede that they no longer can. Hardly anything stops the walker or runner. Neither rain, snow, sleet or hail will keep these souls inside. It's a passion sport they are committed to.
 Those at loss are the  master gardeners, they have had to close everything up and put away their gardening tools for the year. Some gardeners are not going to stop doing what they love, they are going to start seedlings inside. Gardeners receive their flower and vegetable catalogs in February sometime. The pages by now are worn from being looked at often, shrubs circled in pencil, pages are dog eared, plans of where the trees will be planted are written in the margins of the magazine. How do I know this? From my in-laws and my son's catalogs. They circle items like I circle garage sales and I circle a lot.

  Have you cut your grass yet? Ours has been cut three times already.
My mother-in-law has lettuce up, and onions and radishes planted. My son, Doug has spent the day moving blueberry, raspberry and strawberry plants, plus he is getting the ground ready to plant the garden. All my sons love to plant a garden, they are good farmers. My husband's love is music, so we go to farms and buy  our summer bounty.
 Plans for vacations are already made, except if you are procrastinators like we have been this year. Alas. we waited to long! The places and weeks everyone can go are gobbled up by people who were more organized. So far it looks like we are going to the poor man's beach,  they still have openings. It really does not matter as long as most of us are together having
  I truly cannot believe this is my sixty-ninth year of spring. I am thankful to see it, to enjoy it, to feel the warmth of the sun and the soft breezes on my skin.
 Sixty-nine is nothing to sneeze at, it makes me realize how time has slipped by without realizing it.  The days are more precious and I try to take one day at a time and make the most out of it. There is still so much I want to accomplish, I realize now that time is valuable.
  When young and raising a family, the awareness of nature's beauty is sometimes overlooked by all of the chores crammed into the day. Taking for granted a child's hug or kiss, saying later instead of taking the time now, because later you might forget. One day you too will realize that time has passed without you knowing it. It happens - time keeps marching on and does not stop for no one. 
  I had lunch with 4 girls that that were good friends when I went to grade school and high school . As we sat there talking and laughing, I was thinking back to when we were kids, thinking that none of us ever dreamed that in our late sixties we would be blessed to get together again to share our lives of today, and our memories of past days.  To still be the friends we once were. We are those young kids once again, giggles coming easy as we talk about the nuns, our first boyfriend, going to each others houses and what we remembered about each other. They have not changed much at all, still the same cute, loveable girls. It was as if we talked yesterday instead of so many years ago. 
    Over time many things have changed, but some things remain the same in our memories.