
How many chapters do we have in a life? And how many chapters overlap with other chapters? Is it like we're reading several books at a time while keeping track of all of the respective characters and story lines? Or like we're reading one book with so many subplots, each subplot with its own chaptering sequence? It's pretty much the same, just a couple of different analogies on this life phenomenon that happens to us all.
The last couple of months I find myself in a new chapter of my family life- I just became an empty-nester! Both of my sons have moved out. Day to day life feels so different and a part of my mind that was intensely thoughtful about parenting, has now quieted significantly, though not entirely of course!

But while this feels huge and is a big life adjustment, it makes me think about this and all of my other "chapters." I am still in a very long chapter of being a daughter; one about being a sister; another chapter is my marriage (a chapter that just had a big anniversary). I'm still in comfortable, old chapters, and petering-out chapters, and just beginning chapters of friendship. Vacations and summer breaks have been their own chapters throughout the years. I'm also still in a chapter about a series of drawings that started about a year ago; and my jewelry making chapter is older than that and doesn't appear to be coming to a close any time soon. Actually making and expressing myself through art is one of my longest chapters; or rather, I think of my making as an on-going series of chapters with a continuing plot line, all of which is within my bigger life story. Of course there can be plot twists and diverging storylines within a chapter so things can be a bit convoluted when assessing a "new chapter" in one's life. But how incredible is it to recognize short tangents, important and minor relationships; different employments, various parts of work and making and experiences; and all the rest and how these all overlap and are part of each of our long plot lines or life stories? Like an intricate story that is a book of one's life.

I know not everyone has a habit of stopping to think about and assess the chapters in their story, but these are stories for living, not stories that we write for future readers- so rather to be living our story than to be assessing or "writing" it! But on occasion, when you recognize the start or end of a major chapter or plot line, it's a nice moment to pause and think about all of the past and current overlapping chapters. And while it's impossible to be certain about future chapters, no need to worry, those will get written when we live them.
Above photos, top to bottom: My boys on a long walk last summer, the summer before we became "empty nesters." A drawing from my current chapter of floral drawings. My husband and I celebrating a big marker in our ongoing chapter.
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