Spring: A Time for Beginnings and Endings -- and Change

Spring; in nature it is a time for beginnings.

Weeks ago Momma Robin built a nest on our back porch.

The other day her eggs hatched.

Now, her hatchlings start their new lives and are eager to be fed.

Out front, our lilac bush has bloomed and shares its lovely fragrance every time we pass the front porch.

On the sides of the house, irises and roses are in bloom, adding color to our yard.

In our little family, spring is also a time for endings.

Today is my granddaughter's last day of high school. As she headed out the door this morning, I snapped photos to capture the moment.

After final exams this morning, her class will hold Senior Day, where they will have fun and games on the school's athletic field.

Today she will also turn in her soccer uniform and say goodbye to her team mates. I'm sure many tears will be shed.

It is a bittersweet time for her--and for us to see her grown up and prepare to leave our "nest" and head off for college at the end of the summer.

Her official graduation ceremony is a week from Saturday, and her graduation party is next month. Time to celebrate!

This is also my grandson's last week of elementary school. He graduates from eighth grade on Friday.

He is off school today and has an all-day field trip to Hannibal tomorrow, where I'm sure he will learn more about Mark Twain and Twain's famous fictional characters: Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn, to name a few.

On Friday my grandson has his class's Farewell Assembly. At the assembly, his class performs a dance number. That should be fun! 

While he's off of school today, I'm taking him and a couple friends to the movies to see "Iron Man 3."

While he and his friends are watching "Iron Man 3" in one room of the theater, my sister and I will be in another room watching "The Great Gatsby." I'm excited to see this latest version of the movie.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's book "The Great Gatsby" is considered by many to be "the great American novel."

The setting and characters are memorable, but the novel's last line, which is etched on the tombstone Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda share, is recognized as one of American literature's best: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

So, while spring is a time for beginnings, it's also a time for endings; it's a time to remember and celebrate the past and prepare for the future and the changes that lie ahead.

Happy Spring!