Summers Past

   I sat outside looking out into my backyard this evening, and this is what I saw. Memories of years past when life was at a hectic but doable pace. A time when the sound of laughter and giggles abounded. Where every corner was a stretch to get back to home while not getting caught while playing "7 Steps Around the House." 

   A time of chasing lightning  bugs and grabbing an apple off the tree to eat on a late summer afternoon. And checking the books to see what type of bird was visiting the bird feeders.

  A time of hanging flower baskets from the clothes line post and day lilies blooming around the flag pole.  A time of apple and cherry blossoms.  A time of dark clouds in the north producing the fantastic lightning displays and clear nights of northern lights flashing in the heavens. 

   A time of beautiful sun rises and sun sets. A time of lazy summer days watching the billowing clouds in a bright blue sky, trying to see what each one looked like. A time of lying on your back on the picnic table trying to count the stars and watching for satellites and shooting stars as they zoomed across the sky.

   A time of gathering friends and family for an afternoon of volleyball and just sitting around a campfire, eating hamburgers, hot dogs and roasting marshmallows. 

   A time of sounds of birds, crickets, and frogs filling the air. And the breeze blow through the rustling leaves. A time of colored leaves in the fall and frosted trees in the winter.

   Memories of what once was, and though some of those things are still there, it is not the same tonight. As I sit in the silence with darkness coming in, and the memory makers have moved on to make memories of their own. 

   Ecclesiastes 1:4,9 One generation departs and another generation comes,
but the world forever stays.
   What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!