New Frames

I picked up my new glasses last week. They immediately caused a mini crisis.

The frames reminded me too much of the frames I had in the eighth grade! When I first looked in the mirror at the optometrist’s office, I was thrown back to another lifetime marked by huge amounts of insecurity. Frank and the girls had to work quickly in order to pull me back from the ledge of severe emotional trauma. Smile.

I’ve always thought someone should endeavor to find a better way for people to choose eye glass frames.

Please consider. Just exactly WHY are you there choosing frames? Because you can no longer see without assistance! So how in the world are you supposed to choose frames that work well with your face when you can’t even see the things?!

The lovely optometric assistant walks with you to the wall of possibilities. If you’re thinking ahead, you ask her to point out the frames in your price range. She gives a vague wave in “this” section, while you HOPE you’re facing the right way. Then you’re left to squint your way toward a choice!

Only after the purchase is made and the glasses have been delivered do we find out what we actually ordered. There must be a better way!

(I have a great story about how I transitioned from the classic “cat eye” frames of my youth to the more mature tortoise shell ovals in eighth grade. Smile. But that will have to wait for another day.)

Today, Frank and I are headed to NC for our final wedding of the summer.

Our wonderful Amanda will be marrying the man of her dreams on Friday. And we’ll be the joyful participants performing the ceremony.

Too much transition for one short summer if you ask me.

But then again, no one asked me. These amazing young people that we’re privileged to journey beside, have an interesting habit of finding a spouse or a new direction and moving on to lives that God has ordained for them.

As we all gather for the celebration of Amanda and Webb, we’ll be joined by another one of “our girls” who just found out she and her husband are having a baby girl! We’ll enjoy firsthand the reports of one who recently moved to Chicago to help plant a church. We’ll listen to the story of doors God has opened for another moving back to FL to pursue her dreams of recording music.

And if I still saw life the way I did in middle school, I’d feel very sad and a bit empty; maybe even left behind.

But my mature, dimming eyes allow me to see some things more clearly than I did in my youth.

At this age I finally understand that although these changes cause tears, they will also bring growth and expansion. (I’m no math scholar, but even I understand adding versus subtracting! Smile.)

A piece of my heart is moving back to NC with Amanda; no way around that. But that’s why someone invented Skype, isn’t it?

Mature vision also helps me see that perhaps someone else needs to be pulled in close for a few months of mentoring and mothering. What an honor to serve these young women in that role. Even though it means opening my heart once more with full knowledge that they will eventually move away taking a piece of me with them. Sigh.

Yes, life looks very full these days. I’m so thankful that God has chosen to frame it all with His love and grace!