Themes in life...

As life ever changes, there are always new transitions, and they normally don't happen in the order you expect they would. The picture above is of a friend. I was curious if you could catch the "pregnancy glow" in a picture. I'm not so sure if depends on the person interpreting the picture, but I think she's "glowing". This picture depicts one theme in my life that I am transitioning into now. I will be an aunt a little over a week after my 24th birthday. My little sister is due on March 28th. I am very excited. Funny, but it's kind of hard to watch all of the "firsts" for our family and for my parents, happen for Bethany, instead of me....well, I guess the second child needs her time too *smile*!














I went home for a few days last week to help out with a family garage sale. When I was there, I had an overwhelming batch of childhood memories flood my head. With each memory, there was a picture of a place that triggered my memory. This picture is a neighbor's house down the road. If I had taken a picture of myself next to it every year, you would be able to see the aging of this fence. I used to go on bike rides by myself, and lean up against this wooden fence with whatever book I was reading at the time. I remember reading "Wuthering Heights" here...and while reading, inevitably their horse would wander out into the yard near the fence where I sat, and play with my hair. The horse has passed since then, and I haven't frequented the fence in a while, but when I passed by it on the weekend, I stopped on the side of the road and got out to take the picture. As the theme of new life and childhood in my life recently, the childhood memories continued...















I used to love watching the shifting shade under that tree by the fence...no shade is the same it seems, but this one seemed to trigger my memory.















This field is filled with soybeans, but every other year, it is filled with corn. I used to walk down the aisles with my eyes closed and walk just a little faster and faster, and then run with my arms stretched out, so they brushed the edges of the corn stalks and tickled the tips of my fingers. I always wanted a picture of that memory...too bad I cannot paint myself in. I have never been much of a painter...oh, how I wish I could.















These tracks are an inseperable part of my memory. It is just down the road from my house. When I had had a bad day, as a young girl, I would call up my best friend who lived on the next street over. She and I knew of a secret creek under the tracks just down the way. It was halfway between my road and hers. We would make plans to meet each other there. I would skip down the tracks, stepping only on the boards, or balancing on the steel. And then we would meet and jump down below. We would roll up our pants and take off our shoes, and wade in the creek looking for treasures...and when we would hear a train coming, we would run to sit on the rocks under the tracks, and then we would cover our ears and look at each other and laugh. One day, Erin wasn't at home. I had a really bad day. I ran down the tracks, and jumped down to those rocks and cried...just when I was about to leave, I heard a train coming...I remember I didn't even cover my ears. I smiled and watched the underbody of each of the boxcars pass and it calmed me. I loved it there.

This is a road over from ours. I think after I left for China, I came back, not with a hate for the United States, but with a eye for the beauty I grew up around. I didn't have the perfect childhood, but I think it has been beautiful.