Saturday 21 April 2012

I know where the years go

If you are under ten, you long for the day when you can have your freedom and run your own life. If your are nearer twenty, you wonder why it isn't happening yet. Then you get to thirty and think of all the things you could have done in your twenties. And then you think - am I grown up yet? Then before you know where you are, you suppose you must be grown up, even though you don't feel it, because you sort of know stuff that takes a long time to learn, and you get together with your old friends, and somebody will say, 'where do the years go? Well, I know the answer to that. Today we went to our oldest godson's wedding, which doesn't quite add up to 'embarrass your godson day', but it's a great opportunity, so we took two photographs of the dashing young bridegroom when he was just learning to walk, waddling along the beach and eating sand. We had some great holidays together - four adults, six kids, one dog. Sadly the dog now only wags his tail on the web pages, but the rest of us are OK. Which brings me to the point - I know where the years went. They poured into the children, turning them from tumbling climbing, chasing, shouting, crying, laughing, playing, exasperating, funny puppies into those three poised, clever, pleasant young men I met today, to say nothing of my own Daughter, LOS and LYS. A pretty good result, I think. Six pretty good results. Perhaps we did something good. And the years have asked something of me, too.

6 comments:

San said...

Congratulations to your godson! And I know what you mean, though I'm not nearly as wise or experienced yet--I've just entered university and I keep wondering if I'm supposed to feel grown up. I don't, most days, but that's actually okay with me.

Happy Easter! (I can still say that because it technically still is the Easter season right...) :)

margaret mcallister said...

Thank you, Sannie! I don't feel grown up, either, I just know that there are occasions when I have to pretend to be. I almost convince myself.

Happy Easter to you, too, and Happy St George's Day!

San said...

Oh wow happy St. George's Day! We don't celebrate it here; what do you do for it over there? :)

Oh and random question but are you Downton Abbey fans by any chance?

margaret mcallister said...

Hi Sannie! Sadly, the English don't do much about St George's day, so it was great to celebrate it along with the wedding of Paul and the aptly named Georgie (short for Georgiana)! 1 May is more of a big celebration, when Morrismen dance in market squares (think of men with white shirts, knee breeches, long socks and bells, waving sticks or handkerchiefs, that's Morris Men) and the scholars at Christ Church in Oxford sing at the top of the tower to greet the dawn. (Or is it Magdalene College? I forget. Greeting the dawn is something I generally manage to avoid.)

We do like Downton Abbey! Some of it may be a bit of rose-tinted spectacles look at the past, but on the whole it's very good - it makes me care very much about the characters and Bates must be acquitted!

San said...

Congratulations also to Paul and Georgie! And I just looked up May Day and it sounds amazing! I've always wanted to do a Maypole dance.

In the Philippines the Easter Vigil mass is a bigger thing; after the mass we have what is called the 'salubong,' where all the men exit the church on one side to accompany a statue of the Risen Christ on a float, and all the women exit on the other to accompany a statue of the Virgin, and the men and the women have separate processions that meet at the back of the church, where Jesus and his mother are reunited. So that's over for us, sadly, nothing to look forward to at the moment.

And cheers from a fellow Downton fan family! We're very happy Matthew and Mary got together, and yes poor Bates :(

margaret mcallister said...

What a beautiful tradition! I've never heard of that. Sadly the Easter Vigil Mass isn't big here, except in those churches where they light an Easter fire. It's very dramatic - the service begins in darkness, then the Paschal candle is lit and everybody else shares the light from it.

Maypole dancing! We used to do it at school when I was tiny!