Why I Can’t Throw Away the Calendar From 1978

I  was cleaning my closet a while back, and found a box of photos and odds and ends I’d rescued from Dad before he threw it away. Much of it I did end up tossing—old maps, unidentified photos of people I didn’t recognize, etc. But I keep looking at the calendar from 1978, and I can’t bring myself to throw it out. It’s covered with little notes of things that happened that year and reminders of birthdays and appointments.  It’s a time capsule, taking me back to that year when I was a senior in high school, and I had a brother in grade school, another in junior high, and an older one who had just become a daddy himself.

It reminds me of the mama I had…the one who was a room-mother, who was driving kids to church, sewing and upholstering for people, meeting friends for lunch, and taking kids to the dentist, the doctor, and even the hospital. It shows the mama that was babysitting her first grandson, the same year that she took a bus to Louisiana to sit by her own dying daddy. Such a loving, capable mama who was so easy to take for granted.

It reminds me to look at my own calendar, and contemplate how I am using my days.  While I have the health and strength and mind, am I using my days in the most valuable ways? While I still have some of my children at home, and all of them close by, am I making the most of our time together?  While my parents are still living, am I taking every opportunity to show them love and gratitude? Am I filling my days with God’s purpose for me?

“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12