Life Stages

When looking back at memories, I tend to categorize them in stages:  elementary school, high school, twenty's, thirty's, before kids, after kids, before the move, after the move ... I'm guessing you do too.  We all have our different categories because life comes at us in stages.

I've lived through a lot of different stages - hard not to when you get to be my age! - but I know there are a few more other ones coming.  And I don't think I'm going to like them one bit.

My Dad died in 2014, right before Christmas.  That's one of those stages :  before Dad died, and after Dad died.  Then my son last year, before and after.   My sister has been battling pancreatic cancer for three plus years, and things have taken a downward turn.  And then there's my mother, she's 82 and still living in the huge four bedroom house they bought back in 1966.  She's getting too old to care for it all by herself, and yet she doesn't want to leave there.

Some of the stages that are coming my way aren't going to be fun. 
Some days I think I'm ready for them, that I'm grown up enough to handle what's coming.
And other days I know that I'm not ready.

My kids think I'm strong, and in many ways I am.  Or maybe it's that I show them my strong side because I need to be strong for them.  It's how it's always been. 

I have my break down moments, but as my dad always taught me, you gotta "pull yourself up by your boot straps" and keep going.

We all need to do a better job of "keep going". 
I need to keep that in mind this week as I move through it,
and to just keep going.