Sunrise, sunset … swiftly fly the years
Nightgown on a curtain rod
Yes, that’s my nightgown hanging from my curtain rod. How did it get there, you ask? Well, I asked my daughter that same question too.
It’s the reason I didn’t stick to my promise of writing something every Friday. That, and the fact that I have company for two weeks. A beloved uncle and aunt are visiting from Denmark. But that’s another story!
So, where do I begin with this story? I guess, I can begin when I walked in on my daughter, who was in my room, frantically getting ready for her Homecoming dance. I opened my door and saw my nightgown hanging on the curtain rod.
“What happened? How the heck did it get there?” I asked, just puzzled.
She mumbled frantically that she wasn’t thinking. That she didn’t have time to explain, just that she needed to block the sun out of the window and tried to move the curtain, the rod fell, so she thought she could use my nightgown to block out the sun. Why not get a stool?
“I didn’t think I had time, Mom! I have to get ready,” she wailed.
So apparently, she piled clothes on a laundry basket, climbed on the basket of clothes, and attempted to hook my nightgown on to the curtain rod and planned to tape it somehow to block the sun out.
“I guess I just wasn’t thinking straight, Mom,” she cried out, and we both burst into a fit of laughter.
This was my little girl, who would hold her Barney tightly (her Barney has traveled all the way to the Philippines with us three times!). She’s my little girl, who would always giggle and laugh to my delight.
Before my eyes, the years flew by, and I was now staring at a young lady, dressed in her oh, so beautiful “fairytale” Homecoming dress, ready to go out on her first date.
Of course, she was nervous; of course, she couldn’t think straight … She was blooming! The guy she liked was picking her up.
To heck with the nightgown hanging on the curtain rod. It could stay there all week, for all I cared! She was happy and I was happy that she was happy.
Then, the doorbell rang, and as I went to answer the door, I could hear her screaming. I chuckled. I’m not so old. I do remember one night, a long, long time ago… I know the feeling…
After we took pictures and she and her date left, accompanied by his mother, I sighed and wondered, where did all the years go? …
And all night long, this song came to mind …
Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little girl at play?
My girls dyeing Easter eggs at 15 years old and 4 years old
At five years old
At seven years old
At 10 years old
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did she grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears …
Adapted from Fiddler On the Roof’s “Sunrise, Sunset”
I think this song says it all …
Rose Meily
At ground level 