That’s the number I hit yesterday.
I’m no longer in my early to mid 40s. I’m now very deeply entrenched in my mid 40s. (Not that I’ve ever really used those terms anyway.)
I had a great day with friends and family. It began with some time with our little family of four. Pauline, Emily, James and me. It ended at home in the same way.
On Tuesday last week I got a call asking me to fill in as ‘preacher’ on Sunday morning. I was happy to accept and enjoyed spending some time talking about some lessons from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.
From there it was time for lunch and then a trip to catch up with some of my family. One of my brothers had invited us to spend the afternoon at their place.
We had some time to kill before we were due at my brother’s house so we took a drive to the coast and enjoyed seeing the waves rolling in with considerable force. We then travelled along the coast and headed towards the house where I spent the first 16 years of my life.
I was surprised to see the old place still there. Whoever owns it now would be able to improve it very quickly with a bulldozer. It’s been empty for years and the yard is overgrown. It’s an old asbestos place. My estimations would put it at around 52 years old.
That old place might be falling apart now but it was the place where so many memories were created. We parked at the front of the house and as we sa in the car I enjoyed telling Emily and James a little bit about my life there as a kid. I pointed out my bedroom window and the place under the house where I built my cubby and where I created my own ‘radio station’ when I was around their age.
After a lot of remeniscing we headed off to my brother’s place for afternoon tea before headng home for a delicious take away curry and a movie.
I love looking back and telling the old stories. There’s something in those old stories that reinforces who I was and who I’ve become but even more than that, the past can say ‘this is who I was but I’ve moved on’. There’s great hope in that because it says that I don’t have to stay who I am now. I can keep moving forward. I’m not stuck in that little green house being a son and a sibling, I’m now a husband and a father enjoying a life I could never have imagined back there. Life is good right now and there are so many reasons to look ahead to what’s to come.
Do you enjoy thinking about the past? Do you ever visit some of the places you remember as a kid? Do you ever find yourself yearning for those early years or are you looking ahead for the wonderful times ahead?
Posted by Rodney Olsen
Technorati Tags: Remeniscing – Birthdays – 44
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