Just turn around

As I was growing up my Mom always said things like "You turn around and all of a sudden the weekend is over", "You turn around twice and it's a new year", and then one day she said, "Turn around twice and your kids are grown and you're alone." I always thought this was an exaggeration until all of a sudden I find myself a grandfather with five grown children, and no longer that young boy listening to words of wisdom from that dark haired young woman that I call Momma.

Momma holding me a couple of months before my 2nd birthday

On Flag Day a young woman who was no more than a girl at the time became my Momma. From that day on as she taught me how to do things right, how to respect everyone I met, and to be leery of those I didn't know. Momma always told me that on the day that I saw everyone in town flying their flags at the same time, that day was my birthday. "They are flying the flags for your birthday Jimmy." I have turned around twice and more flags than I can count have been flown since then.

As a young man I bought my first car, got my first real job and discovered that at least one girl really liked me, I officially had a high school sweetheart. "Turn around twice and you will be married and have kids."

I turned around and found myself halfway across the country, married and raising a young son of my own. The high school sweetheart was suddenly a distant memory living back in my hometown, and 1500 miles away the girl I married is jealous of someone she never met...this shouldn't be a sign of things to come. "Turn around twice and it will be over with"

I turned around twice and all of a sudden I am into my second marriage with five children. I have a great job, a wonderful wife, and can still run fast enough to keep up with the kids and sometimes even out run them. Life is full of pleasure and pain but the happy times outnumber the sad ones, I can't complain. "Turn around twice and all of your fun and games will be happy memories of your children."

I turned around and found myself a spokesman for many conditions. I have suffered and lived through, diabetes, strokes, heart disease, and mobility issues. I now find myself doing the exact same things that I used to give my Granddaddy a hard time for doing. Granddaddy has been gone three decades now.

Cindy and I have been married going on 21 years, and it seems only yesterday that she and I married and all the kids were young, the kids are all grown now. "Turn around twice and your babies are having babies."

I turned around and found myself a Grandfather, Benjamin calls me Papa, and three others have a life outside of mine, but there are some things in life that you can't change, focusing on the positives in life like the Grandson who loves you helps you accept facts that can't be changed, so don't dwell on negatives. "Turn around twice and the things that hurt you now will be a distant memory" and as Cindy's Mom always said, "This too will pass."

I turned around and found myself moving to California to assist Cindy's parents with their daily living activities and to keep her Mom from living in a nursing facility. It's been six years since Cindy's Mom passed away and her Dad is really struggling to keep on keeping on, and back home my Dad is doing the same.

We are living life as happily as we can, we don't know what the next chapter in our lives will be, we only know that we have to make the best of where we are now. "Turn around twice and you are closer to the end of the trail than the beginning."

Me hugging Momma before she flew home last time she visited.

Now my words of wisdom come from a white haired beauty that I still call Momma, she tells me things like "You turn around twice and the grandbabies are having babies"

Life is a blessing, good things happen and so do bad things, but the good always outnumber the bad. Celebrate and enjoy the life you have right now, because fretting about what could have been will only make the life you have left pass you by quicker.

Focus on the positives, and remember the good times you have had, look forward to any little pleasure that you have coming up, whether it as complicated as a trip around the world, or as simple as a day sitting on the porch enjoying the view. Your life is worth something and if you have any doubts, just turn around and look back on everyone you have ever come into contact with, you are important to each one of them in one way or another, you have had an impact on everyone you know in your own special way.

So far my life has gone by as quickly as if I have just turned around. It's like one minute I was that little guy learning what life is all about, and then I turned around and suddenly I am looking back wondering how it went so fast.

Are there any words of wisdom that you remember from your parents?