straightshot

Honest thoughts on ministry,culture, and living in Utah

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Location: Logan, Utah, United States

I love diversity. I love studying the Bible. science (especially biology and astronomy),and history. I love music, the outdoors...and my family of course. They give me the greatest joy I have ever known!!

Friday, November 02, 2007

Passings

I looked out through rain spattered windows of the Sports Acadamy as they covered the large outdoor pool. Wind gusts played with the paper signs still attached to the fence by the now padlocked gate. Melanie, Linda, Clint.....the names of the swimming instructors flapped in the October wind, the only sound now. Gone were the yells and splashes of myriads of children, the blaring music, the whistle of the lifegaurd as they told people for the umpteenth time to stay off the lane floats. Summer was truly over.

I spent a lot of time at the pool this year, taking my kids and a variety of friends almost every day. It was a long, hot summer, and as my wife rested and dealt with chemotherapy, it was a real blessing to be able to hang out there and give her some peace and quiet. But I always feel this way as they close the pool....another turn of the seasons, another turn of the wheel of life.

The passages of time are a mixed thing, in a variety of ways. As I gazed at the silent pool, I thought of my kids. My daughter turned 13 a few weeks ago. My little blond cutie is gradually disappearing before my very eyes, morphing into (gasp) a TEENAGER. Can this really be happening to me? Wasn't I in college just a few years ago? Did I miss something here?????

And then there is my little boy. Did I say little? He is growing like the national debt and weighs over a hundred pounds! This week, I watched as he walked down the corridors of his elementary school in the Halloween Parade as a 5th grade Darth Vader. As pirates, queens, vampires, and Jedi's talked and laughed, I dutifly videoed my son's last parade in costume. Like an old fashioned ghostly special effect in a TV show, my little guy is slowly fading away. Soon he will be a teen too. Legos and toy guns will give way to sports, cars, and....oh man, girls.

And these wonderful little children will never come back. Ever. It really does get to me at times. Of course, I would be crazy to want them to stay that way. A 17 year old still playing Star Wars would greatly concern me.

But oh how I will miss them....the bedtime stories, the "owies", the playing on the floor with trains and army men....the Barbie houses and twirling of the new dresses....I loved it all.

Thank you Lord, for these years. I wouldn't trade them for anything.


Sentinel Update

For those of you who enjoyed the entry on Sentinal, our guide dog puppy, he is in stage 7 of his training (out of 10). He is doing incredibly well! When you read about what he is doing, it is truly remarkable. He is now training in harness, learning about traffic, corners, obstacles in the street, etc. He has learned not only to avoid traffic, but to even back up if a car gets too close! He is regularly tempted by cats, squirrels, even food! But he must not be distracted by any of these. So far so good.

We pray for this amazing animal and the blind person he will be matched up with. I will keep you posted!