Just Keep Shining
The pools of nostalgia invited me for a swim this week. Each June, my daughter and I journey to the Big D to spend time with my sister. As I walked around the beautiful pond near her home this morning, I sat down on a proverbial floatie on the bank of nostalgia’s waters and drifted.
The park nearby with its slides and bouncy creatures made for riding was the highlight of our trip when my daughter was three. Endless imagination in the world of play. There was the weightlifting summer when we took turns carrying her for two hours straight through The Dallas World Aquarium because the walkways were too narrow for her stroller amidst the crowds. This summer, she took a cooking class at Central Market. I’m holding tight to what I know will be the fleeting main squeeze, the merriment of visiting the American Girl doll store.
I dipped my hands into the nostalgic waters to paddle. Admittedly with blurry vision. She’s growing up. Ten years old.
Nostalgia’s current led me to the memory of my birthday five years ago. I didn’t want to have a birthday. I wanted time to pause or rewind or speed up or something. I just didn’t want to celebrate. Cancer was consuming my dad, but he was determined to cognitively sustain until June twenty-sixth. We had a birthday celebration, but I didn’t put numbers on my strawberry shortcake that year. I found a question mark candle to use instead. It felt like a question mark kind of year.
A family of ducks flying overhead flipped my floatie and flung me back to reality. I exited nostalgia’s interlude.
Ecclesiastes 7:14, “When life is good, enjoy it. But when life is hard, remember:
God gives us good times and hard times. And no one knows what tomorrow will bring.” (ICB)
David Dunn’s lyrics from “I Wanna Go Back” ring true in the beckoning of simpler times. Times when we sang “Jesus Loves Me” and maintained a vision unclouded by worldly disruptions and challenges that come with age.
Time seems to be passing at warp speed. Life is but a vapor. A breath.
James 4:14, “But you do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see it for a short time, but then it goes away.” (ICB)
My dad gave me a pair of earrings that I treasure for my birthday that question mark year. They’re named, “Shine On”. Shine on as my husband and I parent an incredible daughter on the cusp of adolescence and trust Him to give us the wisdom and discernment to lead her well. Shine on in grief. Shine on in the mundane. Just keep shining.
Nostalgia can be double-edged. If too much time is spent looking in the rear-view mirror of the past, we will miss the technicolor view of opportunity laid before us in the wide open space of the windshield.
May we just keep shining with fervor, grace, and the Spirit wind of endurance at our backs propelling us forward.
Dunn, David. “I Wanna Go Back.” David Dunn Music. http://www.daviddunnmusic.com/media.