seasons

Life is a series of seasons, it seems to me. After being a child, with all its phases of development and milestones, adult life is no less dividided and classified. There are many sesons to adulthood.>>>>>>>I remember when i got married. I had only ever beem to one wedding before mine (friends of my then-boyfriend that i had never met before or have seen since). In the following five years, though, many of my acquaintainces, friends, and colleagues were getting married. Then, in the following years, we were all having babies and buying houses and starting careers. It was an eventful and exciting time. Time flew past with all the activities and changes.>>>>>>> Then came the season of forming families and raising children. We did that in a big way with the two kids, big house, Santa and tooth fairy, Winnie-the-Pooh and Rescue Heroes, birthday parties and Wyandotte Lake memberships.>>>>>>> That was a good season which i was able to fully enjoy, being a "stay-at-home" maman for ten years in Maryland and then Ohio. I would not have changed a thing. No, not a singel day. Were there some less-than-perfect times? Yeppers. But sososo many more good times, good days, good memories.>>>>>>> Then the kiddos become big adults and move on to their own lives. The job long abandonned to be the maman returns but it wasn't a career, more a side-income and way to fill the days productively. Joe, having developed his career all the way along was at the peak of his professional life. I, having been a "career mommy", was winding down my career and working my "side gig" as a nurse. There were some bright moments but the season was a bit less bright and certainly less active.>>>>>>>The season that follows? Retirement and "coupledom". The "kids" from my career as a maman are fully in their adult lives. The eldest older than i was when she was born. The younger married and father of two children of his own. Both working full-time and "adulting". Both having formed their own families, far from where we live. We see them a few times a year but it's not the same as when they were little and in the same house. We are "guests " in each other's lives, not the externsions of each other that we were when they were our primary family members. No one crawls into my lap to read Robert Munsch books with a sippy cup of milk.>>>>>>>And, there are no more weddings or new babies among our friends and acquaiintances. Nope, now there are occasional new grandbaby announcements but more frequently (at least this year), deaths and funerals.>>>>>>>We have lived in Costa Rica for five years and in that time, have had over ten deaths to those to whom we were close friends and family. I just was alerted to one yesterday, a dear, dear woman that i was close to in Albuquerque before our move. I was not able to see her in the visits over the last year and i just heard yesterday from her husband that she died in her sleep in October.>>>>>>>I am trying to see the "happy, happy....joy, joy" in this season of life but it's rather dim. What is there to look forward to? What "new" is on the horizon? What advantage to forming friendships and relationships with new people here (most over 70 because few retire in their 50's...) if they are just going to die soon and make us all sad? My best buddy here in Costa Rica has a husband that is 80 years old. I have friends that i keep up with in NM that are over 70 and, while healthy now, so were my friends Margaret and John here in Costa Rica that passed. Then again, social isolation is as bad for the health as smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, according to the Mayo Clinic. So...i continue to meet new people, form bonds, and hope for the best.>>>>>>>That said, if you have some happy news...a wedding or new baby/grandbaby.....a fantastic anything...i would love to share in your joy!!