A Season of Two Little Yellow Dump Trucks

It struck me just now that someday I'm really going to miss the sound of the two little yellow dump trucks being pushed around outside on the driveway and sidewalk, making that distinct grinding noise of hard plastic wheels on concrete and rock.  


It used to be a daily occurrence, one that I heard so often it didn't even register.  In the past few months, it has been heard quite a bit less.  Yet now, as I finish up a few things in the kitchen before heading outside to work....Anna Ruth having just been put down for a nap and a new load of laundry started, I can hear the sound of little wheels grinding away, and I realize how much joy the sound brings me.....well, the thought really.  I love the thought of my two little boys outside playing with their dump trucks.  And, it makes me realize just how quickly seasons pass.  One same day leads to the next, which leads to the next.  Each day is the same, yet ever so slowly, the season begins to pass from one to the next.  One day, you realize that somewhere in the mix of sameness, Spring has transitioned completely to late Summer, and you are headed already into Fall.  And yet, each day was the same, wasn't it?  Where were those minor transitions that heralded the end of one season and the beginning of the next?  Perhaps we lose the details in that we rarely have an abrupt stop.  It is a slow process of change, so slow that if one is not watching very carefully you may never notice until it's gone.  When is the last time you sat on your mother's lap as a child?  The last time she comforted you and took care of you when you were sick?  When was the last time I rocked Caleb to sleep in that old blue rocking chair?  I used to do it every day.  I haven't done it for years.  When did I stop?  


Each season of life brings along new and exciting changes, yet it's hard to let go of the past sometimes too.  Nostalgia can be a powerful emotion.  So, what am I to do with this present?.......with the moments that are fleeting right before my very eyes that are trapped in the sameness and routines of each day? How am I to respond?  I suppose I will cling, for now, to this verse: "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Psalm 118:24


And now, for me - outside I go, to work on the task I have before me this day.....and to listen to and rejoice in the grinding little wheels of two mighty little yellow dump trucks.....