26

So this week Chizz and I celebrated our 26th anniversary. It's a strange feeling. How did it get to be so long? In one way it seems like I have ALWAYS known Chizz, he has always been there. But in other ways, it just doesn't seem like it has been 26 years. A lifetime. I have known and been married to him more than half of my life, and he to me more than half of his. But wasn't it just a few years ago we bought our first house? No, twenty years. Wasn't it just months ago that we had our first child? No, 18 years. I never understood when older folks than me used to say "It goes by in a blink of an eye". Until recently.

Now we are almost on the threshold of a new stage of our life. I think of life as a series of thresholds. Visually I like the idea of stepping through a threshold from one stage of your life, crossing over the threshold to the next stage of your life. We arethisclose to being empty nesters. Snake has one more year of school and off to college. He has already explained to us that it is most likely out of state, most likely not on this coast, most likely extremely far away. He is ready to start his next stage. Crossing literally from the threshold of our home, to the threshold of a college dorm or apartment or fraternity. Blink of an eye.

So where does that leave us? Truthfully, I am looking forward to the next part. Who knows what that will be or where? I look forward to joining Chizz on some of his business trips. I can entertain myself in New York or Chicago or Amsterdam while he is off doing work things. It will seem strange not consulting schedules other than our own to make plans or go places. All our lives it seems we have had to check work schedules, school schedules, baseball schedules, swim team schedules before making decisions. Not any more. Not that I didn't enjoy that phase of our life; I did, we did. Blink of an eye. But our life isn't over, and I am looking forward to crossing that next threshold. Just hope this part doesn't go by that fast.