I'll Play Drums When I'm 80

I appreciated Aaron's post yesterday "Rocks and Sand". This, of course, is a parable I have heard many times, I am married to "The Man Cave" after all. It's funny that he posted that, because I have been having all of those same thoughts lately, but on a much grander scale: on a life scale vs. a daily one.

I have a lot in my life that keeps me busy: work, exercise, kids, marriage, music, photography, business ventures, friends, kids.... oh wait, I already said that one.... house, cooking, cleaning, kids... dang, there I am at that one again. Yup, my kids have been taking A LOT of my time lately. 

You would think that once they were adults they would be less time consuming. On some levels that is true. I don't have to do their laundry any more, they can drive themselves to the places they need to be, cook their own meals if I'm too busy (or cook for me if I'm really too busy) and I never have to find a babysitter if I want to go somewhere. On many other levels however, they are time vacuums.

Topics such as girlfriend/boyfriends, work, college, and finances fill our days and stress is high with job hunting, dorm shopping and account balancing. Teaching life lessons is so much more difficult than teaching shoe tying. There may have been a few tears involved with not being able to get that shoe tied, but they are no comparison to the tears shed from a child wondering how a loan payment is going to be made because full time work is hard to find or the anxiety felt over taking the big step of moving out on your own.

Where do my rocks fit into all of this? Well, my children at this point in my life are my rocks: my husband is a rock and my job another rock. Exercise, cooking, cleaning and my friends have become pea gravel and my music, photography and business ventures have all become sand.

Do I feel upset that some of my personal passions have been reduced to sand? Not really, and here is why. Your life is like the weather, with different seasons happening all of the time. Sometimes you might be in a career season, other times it's more of a child season. I am definitely in a full on, hurricane driven, kid season right now. But, just like a hurricane, this will not last forever.

I am looking at the bigger picture here. Before I know it they will just be gone. My house will seem quiet. It's at that time that things will begin to shift. Kids might become pea gravel at that time leaving room for some of that sand to grow and become a rock for me.

There is a time and a season for everything. I will have plenty of time, in the rest of my life, to pursue my own personal passions. Don't fill your jar up with your sand and pea gravel so you don't have any room left for your rocks. Get to the important stuff first, and the rest will take care of itself eventually. I'll just be the 80 year old rockin' grandma on the drums!

picture is a screen shot from the movie "Pollyana"