Eyes in the Back of My Head

"How did you know that Mom?" they would ask when I would predict the arrival of a friend at the front door.

"I have eyes in the back of my head!" was always my answer. 

I explained that, when you have eyes in the back of your head, you just know things. As the years passed my children came to believe that I had great powers. The truth is I never told them any differently.

I suppose all mothers have that intuitive ability to know the next thing that will happen before it actually does. We see the harm in hammer thrown into the air and what will happen if you run at the swimming pool or don't learn to use the brakes on that new bicycle. It just comes with the job.

This morning I woke thinking about the New Year and those eyes that could see the future by looking backwards. My second set of eye were being called into action one more time. Could I look back and maybe know what was coming next?

Michaela watches and Ethan (the groom) visits will
my two youngest grandchildren Brycen and Shayliana

See, we have just married a grandson off...2 married and 10 to go...and the future is beginning to imitate the past. The grandson is a Marine and he and his beautiful bride are now stationed near San Diego where they will set up their first house. They are living what I hoped to live when my husband and I were married 55 years ago. Let the adventure begin.

Earlier this year my son-in-law was talking about a discussion they had at his Weight Watcher's group. The question on that particular morning was "How do you see yourself 10 years from now?"  He looked at me expectantly thinking I would make some claim to living forever and how I could be running a marathon 10 years in the future. Imagine his surprise when I told him I am the future...and I am living it now!

The eyes in the back of my head that watch see a panoramic view of sunrises and sunsets, children coming and going, falls and success. I see aging parents and grandparents. I see a family that stuck together even when they did particularly like each other sometimes. The future they tell me about is one of wisdom and learning and letting children and grandchildren find their own way. And I see what may be in store for my husband and I. I find glimpses of the future by looking into the past. And it is all good.

In fact, I told my daughter yesterday that I loved watching her and her brothers grow and leave home. Vicariously, my life became bigger and better. Now, as Ethan and Michaela set out to make a life that suits them, another layer of life is added to mine.

As for what I will be like in 10 years, I don't really have an image for that. Even though I think I know what my parents and grandparents experienced the truth is I really was not privy to the details. So I am allowed to envision my own life and not theirs. It has been said that we care very much about the future as we age even though we know it may not be perfect or even exist. My family, friends and even our planet are very much on my mind.

I will be living the future now and hopefully that second pair of eyes will continue to see clearly and far for many years to come.

Happy New Year

My beautiful granddaughters aged 12 and 8.

All of the men in our family (less the groom) at the wedding.

Part of our extended family at a post wedding breakfast. Boy friend, birth sister to son-in-law, my daughter, granddaughter, son, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and his sister and her son. And, of course, my husband in the background.