Past meets Future on the Checkout Line
Today, as I was checking out in the grocery line, I met a women who I recognized as my past. That might sound a bit delusional – ok, more than a bit – but I am a true believer that sometimes we are put in the path of another person to gain perspective on our own lives. Today I think it was for the benefit of both of us.
She was very pregnant. I mean like about to burst, 5 days to go, kind of pregnant. And of course she was food shopping. One has to nest at that point, right? I asked her when she was due, if it was her first and all the other questions you would ask a woman at that stage. She and I got to talking and I found out that, like me, this was her second, she was having a boy after a girl and trying for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section).
"Um, hon, I don't know how to tell you this, but I am pretty sure I am your future", I told her.
She laughed and asked me how her life would be turning out.
"Well, 17 years from right about now I would imagine if you have any brain cells left after that 20-year gallop down the path of parenting, you might think of me and wonder why I am so cheerful", I said. She laughed nervously and asked why. I told her that having survived the terrible 2's, toddler years, and pre-school all wrapped up together in one bundle was no training for what pre-empty nest has to offer. Driving teens, kids going off to college – often never to truly return – and the prospect of the next chapter breathing down one's neck was a little daunting. Not to mention the bleeding of cash for a good 7 years.
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