Everlasting Summer

An August Afternoon (Restrike Etching)

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own; and from morning to night, as from the cradle to the grave, it is but a succession of changes so gentle and easy that we can scarcely mark their progress.” - Charles Dickens

Reluctantly, my three-year-old and I pulled out the faded marigolds that have lined my driveway since August. She and I deadheaded the plants, putting the seeds away for safe-keeping until the spring. I was sad to see the color go, but happy to see the clean look of the driveway once the leaves and dead flowers were gone.

Usually, the seasons don’t come and go without warning. They ease in and out, and with relatively predictable timing. Still you hear people exclaiming their shock at the “sudden change” in weather.

Children and the elderly are like that too. People are always telling me it seemed like “yesterday” that their children were little. They say it happens when you “blink”.

When the kids went back to school in the fall, the school nurse remarked about how many inches my eldest daughter had shot up over the summer. I measured her and realized that she is taller than me. When did that happen?

An older friend or relative, after suffering through an illness for several months, passes away “suddenly”. From the outside, this is easy to see. From the inside, it is harder to be objective about the time as it passes.

I think of the seasons translating to human development as spring for birth, summer for young to middle-aged adult, fall for the elderly, and winter for death. There is no birth or dying in Heaven. Everyone will have new, perfect bodies and be in the prime of their development. When the universe is renewed at the time of Jesus’ coming, it will be like a one-time spring that turns into an everlasting summer.

Flowers will bloom and never fade! Leaves will bud and never fall off! There will be no weeding, for no plant will be deemed undesirable. We will walk around the garden of life praising God for ever for His Glory.

We will not be sad to watch our little ones grow up, or to watch our elderly die. We will not hesitate to form human bonds, for friendship will never die and neither will our friends.

In the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church entitled “The Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth” (section 1042), drawing on sacred scripture, we read:

“At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:
The Church…will receive her perfection only in the flory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.”

The Resume of My Married Life

Last night Kevin and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. When I think of all the major life changes we have been through in such a relatively short time, it is amazing. I have touched on some of these lightly and expounded on others throughout my blog entries. Here is a short resume of what we have accomplished together…

1993-1995
I finished my Masters’ Degree.

1995-1996
We moved to North Carolina for a year.
We moved back to Long Island.

1996-1997
I worked as a teacher for a year.

1997
We bought our first house (and quite possibly our last).
We had our first baby.

1998
We had our second baby.

2001
We had our third baby.
We started homeschooling.

2006
We had our fourth baby.
We enrolled our children in Catholic school.

The different periods of our lives seem to be defined by these life-altering events of births, moves, and schooling and career moments. I look at the above list and I think, “What happened between 1998 and 2001, between 2001 and 2006, between 2006 and 2008?”

Indeed, if I was handing a job resume to a prospective employer, that is the first question he or she would ask.

As someone recently said so poignantly, “You couldn’t possibly write about every single thing that happens to you in the course of a day.” Indeed, many days I cannot make it to the computer to write about all the things that have happened in that time. And when I do, I must leave out so much because otherwise I would be writing non-stop. (Possibly a seemingly noble goal for a writer, but only truly feasible for such writers as Dostoyevsky who composed his masterpieces while sitting in a Russian prison for many years.)

Those years are composed of hundreds of days, which in turn are comprised of thousands of minor moments which truly define our lives. And those moments are so important that our Creator keeps count of every one of them. I look at the blank years of our resume and remind myself that every thing I do, every thing I think, every thing I say has an effect on the building of our lives together.

“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.”
2 Peter 3:8

Painting above: The Sundial Garden by Simon Burtall