Bring It On

Five years…

That’s right, it’s been five years…

My life seems to have changed so very much over the last five years.  Maybe that’s due to the fact that it was so stable and seemingly predictable for the preceding twenty years.  Lisa worked, I worked and we raised two pretty awesome children.  We built homes, took vacations, cut grass, cleaned house, and raised kids.  It was normal, stable and predictable and I loved it like that.  Looking back, maybe it was a tad bit too stable and predictable.  A thought for another post at another time perhaps…

Yes, my life seems to have been changing and evolving at lighting speed over the past five years.  Of course not at first…  It seemed, at first, life was moving in painfully slow motion and it was all we could do to just get out of the bed and make it through the day and on to the next one.  As time has passed, however, life seems to have taken on speed and flown past me far too swiftly.

In the span of just a few hours our lives changed in the most drastic way.  And, life has continued to change for me…  In just the past five years I became a single dad with two children, one in middle school and one in high school.  To a single dad with one child in high school and a college student.  To a single dad with an empty nest and two college students.  I loathe that term by the way… Empty nest…  I’m going to have to come up with something witty to replace that term.  Yes, things have changed at warp speed and there were many times that I wished it would just slow down and stop changing so much.

Tonight, however, I don’t…  I don’t fear the changes anymore.  I embrace change and look forward to the next change, whatever it might be. Even though I miss her more than words can describe, tonight I look forward to the next five years and the years beyond.  I look forward to what life might bring me and pray that it wont take from me instead.  And, if by some chance it does decide to take rather than give, I will survive.  For I have survived.  We all have.  We will continue to.

So, bring it on Life.  Show me what you’ve got for me now…