Last night I attended the annual alumni banquet of my high school. It was the 58th since my graduation. I may have written here before about how small my school was, there being only 8 in my graduating class and that 4 of those, all girls, joined us in our senior year having consolidated from a neighboring small school just across the county line. Now, only 3 of the 8 remain and only Richard and I were at the banquet. Of course since we graduated a subsequent consolidation took place and now there is no school in that community; the students living in the township now are bused to a consolidation with 4 other schools and ride nearly 20 miles as opposed to the 5 miles of my time.
I now live 60 plus miles away from that small farming community and there is a huge void between our lives as schoolmates and our present situations, except that then we were all full of life's expectancies and now we all experience its decline. For one evening it gives us comfort to catch up on where we now live, what our children are doing, how we feel and what maladies we suffer, but more than anything we just enjoy remembering our times together as youth. Not all of those experiences were wonderful and pleasant at the time but most of our memories are of the exciting and happy times. For an evening, together we are young again.
During the night there was a strong thunderstorm with the strong wind lashing rain at the windows. In our neighborhood a large tree limb was blown onto the roof of a nearby house. This evening it is pleasant and cooler, an enjoyable time to be out of doors enjoying the songs of the birds and the beauty of our surroundings. The earth endures. One day it is a frightening and destructive place, the next it is beautiful and tranquil.
I am thankful for these evenings, for being able to see, hear, smell and taste all that is so wonderful around me. At dusk I seem to be more aware and appreciate the beauty of this earth. More than ever it is then that I realize I won't always be here.
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