Mommy Knows

My husband and I were driving our 2 granddaughters home after taking them out for supper and skating.  I chatted with G who was almost 4 years old.  It was Friday evening and I asked what she and two year old Maybe were doing the next day.  Her answer was priceless.  “We don’t know.  Mommy knows.  She will tell us tomorrow.” 

But that’s life.  Mom and Dad take care of everything.  Eventually a time comes when we are more aware of what the next day brings.  And then, the future.  Really, we are on a path from the day we are born and it is mapped out in some ways.  General guidelines about where we are going.  According to Angeles Arrien, a wonderfully brilliant anthropologist, this all ends when we reach the second half of life.  We go to school, graduate, maybe go to University, get married, buy a house, car, have kids, a career and then retire.   Women enter this next stage of life and are at a loss.  Now what?

I retired at age 45 when my first grandchild was born.  I struggled for a few years and had very little motivation or direction.  Rene’ would go to work in the morning and ask what I was going to do that day.  I used to make stuff up. I felt lazy if I couldn’t come up with a plan.  The day very seldom went as planned anyway.  Now I am quite happy with the not knowing.  In fact, I love it.  Now when someone asks me what I am doing today, I just say, I don’t know.  Because I don’t.  Here is what I learned.  The best days are when you are young and Momma tells you what you are doing tomorrow but also when you are retired and you just don’t know.  There is so much time now for the spontaneous and the unknown.  Remember those days?  They will come again…