Life and Death and Seasons of Change

No matter how distracted I get with my life, this is ALWAYS one of the toughest weeks in my year....the week leading up to my birthday.

I'm already missing the normal effects of sunlight...our days are so much shorter, and it's happened so quickly! It seems to happen faster and faster each year. *sigh*

Then it's a week full of anniversary's...not good wedding ones, but sad "missing people who have died" ones. My mom, Frances Derderian Peters, died when I was almost 13. Then, just a few years ago, one of the girls that worked at the library with me, Amanda, died in a car accident on her way back to Cassville after the football game in a neighboring town. She was just 17, full of life. It was as if one of my own children had died...we were that close.

Now, this very evening, we got a call from Mark's mom, that her mother, Mark's "Nana" has died. She turned 100 last month, a life full of love and memories and joy. But still...it's sad to think that we won't see her in a few weeks...that we won't get that 5 generation photo when Melissa's baby arrives in a few weeks.

Still I'm grateful that we got to see her last spring, when we were out there. We had a great visit, and she was so much fun, with Mark and his brother Tom there together.

Someday I will see this week as the week leading up to my birthday, leading up to Melissa's baby's birthday, and not miss all those that have gone before me...but not now...not this year. It's still a sad time for me...just reflective of what God is doing in nature...

I'm grateful that my hope is in the fact that "joy comes in the morning" as surely it will arrive. And if not in the morning, in the spring...