When my children were small and they would throw fits of one kind or another, grandparents and knowing friends would say, "Don't worry. It's just a phase they are going through." They could tell me that with confidence because they had observed and lived the phases of this life.
With each phase I notice that my closest friends are going through the same life changes as me.
At the same time my friend, Nancy and I were going through our birthing phase, several of my girlfriends from my college years were going through the same phase. I have been able to catch up with their lives through email for the last three or four years. What I have discovered is that we have all been going through the same phases all of our lives. Even though a few of those women have passed through the stages at a different time, they eventually go through the phases just the same.
Lately, it seems several of my friend's children are graduating from college and getting married. This stage of watching our children move from dormitory roommates to living with their mate for life, has now begun yet another new phase of life for us...grand-parenthood. My close circle of friends that I email, along with friends I now live near, have about 8 new grandchildren born over the past 3 years.
With each new generation come new social fads, new words in language, new inventions. But the phases of life will remain the same for most of us. We live through all of them watching the generation just ahead of us. I am just now seeing my life repeating that of my parents. They watched me go to college, get married, have children and I watched them retire from jobs. I've now watched my sons go to college, get married and begin to have children. In the near future, they will watch as my husband and I retire.
Unfortunately, my parents' phase in this life ended too soon to even watch their grandchildren graduate from high school. So, it is my hope that I will be in attendance at the graduation of our grandson, Aidan and his little sister, Regan and any other little Martins that come into this life. In thirty years, I will be 82 years old and hopfully still here watching and experiencing all the phases of life yet to come. I don't want to miss a thing. Although, if I recall, my parents didn't make it that far.
In the present phase of my life, I can be the knowing person that encourages the younger generation. I can with confidence tell them "It's just phase." Like all phases, they will run their course and evolve into the next phase of life.
Where are you in this life? Wherever it is, whatever trials you are experiencing, remember..."It's just a phase." It will pass.
1 comment:
Some phases are fun. The phase I'm in now. Loving it. getting paid, no kids, loving my wife. It's nice, I have to admit. But so was college, and I had to leave that. In the same way we will eventually want kids, but I think the trick is to enjoy your life in whatever phase you find yourself. I guess that can be difficult, but it's a goal, I suppose.
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