Life All Patched Together

You know, it’s funny… not haha funny, just interesting…

When I string together all of the snippets and pieces of my life, it creates quite a scene. I was going to say it makes quite a “Tapestry,” like Carole King used to sing about, and that is an amazing word and an amazing way to view life, for sure… patches (experiences) sewn together to make something beautiful and warm.

When I was a younger person, I never thought that where I was going or what I was doing, thinking, or feeling, was all that interesting. But now! Let me tell you that now, at age 52, I look back and say, yes, I have done that – yes, I have gone there – yes, I experienced that – yes, my heart broke, and yes, it mended because of someone or something… And I’m glad.

For this blog post, I’ll only go back as far as my marriage. I’ve been reflecting this weekend because me and ‘the old man,’ (a.k.a. Todd) met 34 years ago on February 28, 1980. My entire adult life is tied to him and him to me. That might sound sort of ‘dullsville’ to some; but I’ve come to realize that it’s actually pretty cool. We’ve seen each other through an awful lot: job layoffs, home buying and building, the births of two beautiful kids, overwork, underpay, vacations, deaths of parents, laughs, tears, bad arguments and great make-ups - and more.

Sometimes when we were deep into the thick of things it seemed like days droned on forever. But they didn’t. The sun always set, and eventually rose the next day – same 24 hour period. And now when we look back it seems that even those days flew. Isn’t that strange?

Sometimes it felt like we never went anywhere interesting. As a young stay-at-home mom I wished we’d vacation more often. Yet, when I think about it, we’ve been to so many places – Canada and Mexico - and at least 20 of the states between California and Connecticut – some (like Florida) – multiple times. As our kids grew up and moved away, (Megan east and Tony south) they provided us with locales and purposes to visit that we might never have seen or realized. We never know what might happen to provide us with a good memory, trip or story.

We’ve cheered for our kids at soccer, basketball and baseball games. We’ve cheered for the Waukesha North marching band in Pasadena on New Years Day and in New York City on Thanksgiving Day. We’ve cheered for our favorite professional teams at the famous Lambeau Field, Milwaukee’s own Bradley Center and Miller Park; and I even took in a Brewers game at Yankee Stadium once. Awesome!

 

We own a boat that has taken our family on adventures (some more fun than others, but always adventures nonetheless) that many only read about (and some only want to read about) – from the locks on the Mississippi River (from LaCrosse all the way to Stillwater on the St. Croix), to the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, to Green Bay and up into Door County. Todd and I went to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior and explored the famous sea caves.

As a couple Todd and I went to the top of the arch in St. Louis, rode the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls, and observed the crazy/beautiful animals at the San Diego Zoo.

See what I mean? Over the span of 34 years, the experiences begin to really mount up. I don’t know if it’s age or maturity or experience or what – but I really believe the old Ecclesiastical teachings…  “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven. There’s a time to be born and a time to die, a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to cry and a time to dance.” And for us, there’s a time to travel and a time to stay home. There was a time to be active in our kids’ lives and there’s a time to let them go and be... and a time to re-create our own life.

And when you do that, when you string your life all together some day, even the days that seemed like they went on forever, I hope that your story makes a beautiful tapestry too.

Here’s to more smiles than tears!

Katie Kolberg Memmel is the author of “Five Fingers, Ten Toes – A Mother’s Story of Raising a Child Born with a Limb Difference.” For more information, visit her website at www.katiekolbergmemmel.com