Feeling Nostalgic

I’ve  been feeling very nostalgic lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and there's more to look back on. Whatever the reason, I’ve been traveling down memory lane a lot lately.

My nostalgia has me thinking a lot about my parents. They have been gone from this life for a while now, but I still miss them. How I would love one more visit, one more conversation, one more hug.......

I miss the twinkle in my mother's eye. I miss her calming presence, and her sense of what was "appropriate" (a favorite word!). I miss my daddy's sense of humor, his big laugh, and his jokes (even the ones I had heard hundreds of times!). I miss spending time with them and talking with them on the phone and sharing a meal together. I just miss them.

I am so very thankful for my parents. For the godly legacy they left behind. For their love for the Lord and for His Word and for His Church. For their love of people. For their generous spirits. I'm so very thankful.

From the very outset of my married life, I never lived in the same town as my parents. I never had that privilege, as so many others do. It was always at least a hundred, and sometimes more than a thousand, miles to where my parents were. So we talked on the phone. Even occasionally wrote letters. (That really dates me, doesn't it!)

Those phone calls were always on the weekend. Back in the days before cell phones and free long distance, in the days when long distance rates were cheaper after five and on the weekend, that's when we talked. On Saturday mornings. And later, when we moved to Colorado and had time zone differences to contend with, we talked on Sunday afternoons. How I miss those conversations. Time to catch up. To laugh. To talk about nothing in particular. To talk about what was important. How I would love to hear the sound of their voices.

We have so many more ways to communicate these days than we did back then. But I'm not sure that all those avenues of communication have helped us communicate better. Life these days is so busy, and we're so enamored with all our technology, that people are often forgetting what is really important. We have lots of ways to communicate, but we don't really communicate very often. Or very well. At least that's how it seems to me as I'm getting older and feeling nostalgic.

I miss my parents. I miss being able to pick up the phone and have a chat. A week never went by without at least one phone call, and in their later years, many more. But I have wonderful memories. And lots of pictures. This is one of my favorites.

"Honor your father and your mother."  (Exodus 20:12 ESV)