Good Night Moon

My husband and I have been married for thirty-six years this past June. We have been blessed with four children, a daughter and three sons. Our nest is almost empty, the last son here at home will graduate college in the spring. As of the last count, we’ve been blessed with three grandchildren, life has been good for us.

Raising a family Over these years of raising children we have spent a lot of time reading. Not only are we, the parents, voracious readers, but our children also love this pastime as well. Those early years were spent reading and reading, more often than not, the same book, over and over again. Oftentimes not even needing to actually look at the written words, to “read” it to them. There were also certain times where I may have “misplaced” a favorite book, just so we could not phantom read “Madeline” again. For the love of all good things, not again!Trips to the library and beyondSomehow, the reading-to-the-kids days disappeared. Our family weekly trips to the library became a challenge. As much as these kids could read, our take-home totes would be overflowing as each one of them would gather their own mountain of reading material. Their independence in reading made us proud, loved seeing the directions their literary goals took them. More often than not, the kids would eventually have all read the same tales and the discussions around the dinner table would become quite lively, each of them regaling us with their favorite parts of the stories. The struggle to gather all printed material back in a timely manner to avoid an overdue book bill became a huge challenge. Designating a “home library shelf” worked pretty well, after trying anything to streamline the process. A new nightA recent evening had me looking back on these early days of childhood books. Our college-aged son had a choir concert and we dutifully attended. It was a clear night, and the full moon shone brightly up above. As we walked out of the concert hall, this magnificent moonlit the sidewalks as we made our way to our car. With macular degeneration as my ticket to the struggles of nighttime navigation, I walked carefully while gazing up at the beautiful moon. It came back to me then, that childhood book that all four of the kids loved. With a bit of a smile, I gazed up and said “Goodnight Moon,” looking at the twenty-two year as I did. He remembered it as well. The time of tucking in little ones has long passed but the happy memories live on. Seeing what others seeAs we continued to be amazed by its splendor, I asked, what do you see when you look at it? A common question these days as I am always wondering about my limitations. Wondering if I am seeing the same thing that other people are seeing. Our notes coincided, the moon shone brightly, with a fuzzy ring outlining it. TimeTime, whether you think it’s moving fast or slow, is always on the go. Knowing that some things stay the same and some things change, through it all there is but one constant. Seeing what we can see is sometimes based on what we have seen before. I hope to always be open to the memories of yesterday and the challenges of tomorrow.Share YOUR own story