This space used to be an online scrapbook of my life. My own little corner of the internets. Then along comes life and I was too busy living life to post about life. But now, life is different for me. We’ve moved to a new part of the country. I left behind my baby crib and diapers. I found a(n almost) teenager living in my new house. Everything is new. Everything is changing. 

I find myself wanting to stop time just so I can linger in these moments before they become vapors. All my adult life, I’ve been told “it goes so fast!” Thankfully, that was never news to me. I did savor the moments. I treasured the baby snuggles. I didn’t get swept up in the to-dos that I missed out on the play times. But Time didn’t seem to care about that and slipped away anyway.  I sit here now wondering where it all went. 

This new season is like turning the pages of a book to the next part–not just a new chapter, but a whole new part. Ya know like Part One: Childhood and each year of life a chapter. Then there’s Part Two: Falling in Love and more chapters chronicling that season. Along comes Part Three: The Birth of Mamacita, Finding my way in the forest of babies and nursing and potty-training and homeschool and repeat. 

Here comes Part Four. I don’t even know what its title is yet. I won’t know for quite some time. You really have to live life out to its fullest before you can look back to see how far you’ve come. It’s at that point that you can title each part and give the chapters their parametes. Life is constantly shifting and changing. Its a living organism that grows and adapts. 

I have dreams and visions and goals for this part of my life and I have dreams and visions and goals for the parts of my life to come. In time, I know I will see the fulfillment of many of these dreams and I know I will make new dreams. But for now I’m happy to steal moments out of the crazies to find some peace and quiet to think on these things. 

I hope to take more time to think back on the parts of my life and the chapters held within each part. It’s good to think back and reflect on where you’ve been. Where you’ve been will tell you a whole lot about where you’re going. The past shapes our future. It doesn’t write our future, but it shapes it. 

I look forward to this new part, these new chapters, this new season of life. So far I have loved every second of this wild ride of life I’m on. Through heartache and sorrow have come some of my greatest triumphs and accomplishments. And through those highest of highs have come some of my lowest of lows. But put it all together and it is never a dull moment. 

There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing; a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given people to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed. (‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭1-15‬ HCSB)