As If I Needed Another Reason to Cry

Today my mother and I were talking about some issues related to one of the books I mentioned in my recent post about reading: Tending Roses. (My parents are my most faithful blog readers. They even print out every single post and save them all in a big notebook--or, rather, several big notebooks. Dad likes to keep me informed as to exactly how many pages I've written! They are usually not, however, blog commenters...except in person, which is nice because it has sparked some meaningful discussions.) Anyway, Mother shared with me today some things about how she cared for my grandmother when my mother was the "younger generation" and my grandmother, the "older" one. Now that some years have gone by, my mother finds herself in the older role and I am the younger one. I'm so very grateful for my mother's ability to communicate with me about various issues related to aging, so that I can learn from her and we can help each other along life's paths.

Tonight my mother showed up for dinner carrying a pink notebook which contained a hard copy of the presentation found here. After things had settled down tonight and the house was quiet, I sat in a rocking chair with Tobin in my arms and read it. And then I cried. And then I came to the computer and watched it online. And then I cried some more. To be holding my newborn son in my arms as he fell asleep...to be reading and thinking about my parents' aging process...to be considering my own life journey and what the future may hold...it was, to put it simply, a poignant moment.