Standing two places at once...

The kindness of the Lord has set a path before me and has pursued me and kept me... and is keeping me...

I listened  as my friend began to speak for me and relate a prayer request that I couldn't have brought together.  As I listened to her speak somethings made more sense and I was grateful for having not been able to formulate the words myself.  

Basically my whole world is changing.. again and again and again and it hasn't stopped changing for a while...  As I listened to her it was as if I was able to see a lining up of things that I hadn't and to see the snow globe turned upside down then right side up then upside down again and then repeat that process a couple more times...

Like a ride at Carowinds, an amusement park in the Carolinas.. literally in the Carolinas...  My kids love that there are places in the park where you can be in two places at once.. The park straddles the border and so one foot can be in South Carolina and one foot can be in North Carolina, ie two places at once.  

Two places at once... 

Standing and leaning against my oldest son while watching my youngest son graduate today, knowing that truly in four days it won't be a Kindergarten classroom.. it will be Winthrop Coliseum and it will be a  graduation into college.. into life...

Standing two places at once...

Touching high school and kindergarten and 8th grade all in one week...  Three sons.. each path so very different...  All three ending and beginning journeys.

Passing the post office, the bank (whose teller, Barbara, I have known and deposited checks with or done other business with through the drive through for over 5 years), passing the high school.. Standing with some friends and remembering back to the days I met them.. friends of my oldest when they were 8th graders and 4 years seemed like a luxury .. it certainly wasn't 4 days... 

Two places at once... 

Places being lived out and places being remembered...  Standing with one foot in each..  

Standing in a church service that was beyond full.. thinking of the first days I stepped into the sanctuary and found a home..  Thinking how in less than 14 days I will stand in a different sanctuary that has held my heart and been a home to visit and to come to and now to live ...

Two places still very much at once...

Standing in a doctor's office filled with nurses and doctors and staff I have known and been known by for seven years and looking at their faces and wanting to hold onto them. Standing in a chiropractor's office.. the place that has birthed and granted hope back .. looking at the doctor that handed life back to us and choking back tears not knowing how to fully say thank you or good bye.

Standing in two places at once...

My littlest son loves to walk up the brick laid path that is in front of the pole that delineates North and South Carolina.  He walks the path up directly to the post and then chooses a side...  Tonight I feel like that youngest son.. Walking up the brick path to the pole and approaching the pole, no longer can I truly stand in two places at once..  Or can I?

I stand looking at the pole..  I stand in the palm of my Father's hand that nothing can pluck me out of.. 

I stand looking at the old and aching and anticipating the new and aching...  

There is so much joy.. My youngest son came flying into my bedroom as he headed off to bed, "thank you, thank you momma, thank you for this day."  My oldest son popped his head in before going off to more festivities.. "Mom, I just wanted to let you know I was going.." and he spoke of some news in regards to his girlfriend's class rank that he and I had been waiting to hear about all day.. SO MUCH JOY...

Yet today I leaned up against our oldest  at our youngest son's graduation knowing that all too soon his turn would be coming.. today my ears would hear the first of three playings of Pomp and Circumstance .. today, I have celebrated and wept and looked and remembered and I have stood in two places... past and present while also thinking about tomorrows that are coming all too soon...

The kindness of the Lord has set a path before me and has pursued me and kept me... and is keeping me...  This past weekend a dear friend had taken care of all the needed details for me to spend some time at a local Abby and I know that it was that time that simply refocused my heart and prepared me to walk these days of "two places at once."  

In knowing all things He holds past, present and future in His most capable hands and empowers us into places we could never walk upon but His grace...

THE OLDEST AND THE YOUNGEST GRADUATES...

The first to graduate this week... Gregory walks at the end