Seasons of Life

This has always been one of my favorite seasons. I love autumn, the crunch of the leaves, the colors of the trees, the crisp coolness in the air. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it is soon approaching, and Reformation Day (which was this past Sunday) is one of my favorite church services, because it contains such powerful, meaningful music - often accompanied by brass or organ.

As life goes on, seasons keep having more meaning and memories added to them - happy and sad. We soon will mark the one year point after David's stroke (November 2). What has become part of this season now too is that it is also the time of year when we remember Dad going home to be with Jesus, October 28, 2004 - the joy he is experiencing there and the fact that we will be reunited with him someday, but the sadness of all that he and his family are missing out on by not getting to be here together anymore. Sixty-seven is far too young to lose a husband, dad and grandpa - so many years and events yet to come that we'd sure love him to be here for - high school graduations, college graduations, weddings, great-grandkids, family times. We were so privileged to be able to have him perform our wedding ceremony and the baptisms of all our children.

It's hard to believe it's been 4 years. It's VERY hard to believe it's been 4 years.

Dad was a pastor and had a pastor's heart. Next to that he was most well known for his sense of humor, which you can see in the picture I'm including, and which I hear (for better or for worse) in my husband and my children multiple times EVERY day. The humor gene must run deep (the pun-humor gene). In that way, as in many others he certainly lives on!!Dad always had something to teach us - like hanging spoons off our noses!The Michigan grandkids at Dad's gravesite 2 years ago.The California grandkids.