When I look back I see my "young days" as spring, a time for new growth and discovery. A time of to learn and a time to create. I look back to my childhood and see how blessed I was to have my family and parents. I look to the things we did. We went to church and I leanred my Bible stories and songs. I think back to the special things we did as a family. I remember how my mom always dressed us up and we felt special. I think of how dad did special things with me like build us a playhouse, or help me with my homework. I think of how my parents taught me the importance of getting an education and being a responsible person. I think of the advice I got, and the choices I made in the early years. Sometimes I wish I had taken their advice. I look back to meeting my husband at church when I was 17. I wanted to start a new life with my young love and still please my parents. It was not easy, but I did it. There is so much energy and vitality when you are young. I look back and see that in spite of going through infertiltiy and losing 3 babies to miscarriage, God still gave us 3 children. Looking back I saw there were times that I got a little spring frost bite and a few things got frozen.

When the kids came, I felt like I had entered the "summer season of my life" More growth with my family and my siblings. Just an over all fruitfulness of life, new homes and kids growing. Church for them which really took off when we moved to Corona and joined a new church called New Beginnings. Many good things were blooming. In other areas, things that had been dormant for years made its way through, It's like looking at a beautiful garden and also noticing the menacing weeds that want to choke out the good things. I know God's hands were there pruning me and at times I felt utterly scorched. Through it all, things hidden were revealed, relationships were restored and the fruits of friendship grew along with my children.

Now I am in the autumn if my life. The fruits of my offspring have grown and a new harvest of grandchildren have begun. I have seen both my parents die. But I had that "Indian summertime" to spend the last years with my parents. To be there with them as they both finsished out the winter of their lives. Today I was looking at the leaves on our front year tree as they are begining to change. I think of how my dad was here one day and we were watching Audrina play in the leaves. He commented on how he thought of me when he saw her playing with her curly hair. He said it seemed just like yesterday when I was his little culry haired girl. He told me I was blessed and to enjoy my grandchildren. He told me how he was blesssed with his family. Little did we know that the colors in his life would soon be gone. As he got closer to the end of the life, he told me to enjoy my family.

When I thought about the tree outside, I thought about how much I have enjoyed watching it go through the different seasons. Fall is such a beautiful time to see the beautiful colors of the leaves change and fall. No one says the tree is dying when the leaves fall. We just see the beauty of it all. We don't stop to think that in a short time, the leaves will come back. After my dad died, I could only see the bareness of the tree as my heart was so heavy. Then I thought of how things die in order to for new growth to begin. Such is the case with my parents. And now I must focus on the color of the leaves in my life while they are still abudant. There are so many leaves and they don't fall at one. Just as I take the time to go outside and take the sights and sounds in. I must stor up memories to be shared. Now is the time to journal/scrapbook these things so they can be preserved for later. I need to enjoy the autumn of my life as ] much as I can because before you know it, the winter season will be here. So until the, I will

and

and enjoy the seasons of my family's life.





~Kellies Creations ~ Graphics By Grace~ Amaretas Graphics~ Magnolia Station Graphics~
Midi is Keeper of Dreams by Bruce DeBoer
This page was created October 8, 2013 by Susan Pedroza.
Susan's Garden of Friendship