Sunday, August 17, 2008

I Am The Person Who Goes Back

I am the person who goes back.
I have driven back to the house I grew up in.
Parked nearby and wondered about a lifetime spent there.
So many memories, so fast the time went.

I went back to a factory where I once worked as a younger guy.
Seven years of my life I worked there.
I saw it empty, just a shell of a large building now.
There was nothing left.Just walls that held so many sights of my life.
I walked through. I stood a while. Life goes on.

My parents summer home in Michigan on the lake.
I walked through that old house,little remains now.It's all new and remodeled.
I saw the bedroom where I slept,the knotty pine walls.
Mom and dad lived here.
I walked on the shore where I grew up.
The old dock my dad had built still stands.
This is the place where I fished where I made friends with stray dogs.
This is the placed that I loved as a boy.
No, you can not go home again.Life goes on.

Campsites where Lin and I camped with the 4 little ones.
Walking through the park,seeing young moms and dads with thier little ones.
Preserve your memories.
Take pictures,shoot movies of your family.
Life goes on.

We have lived in this house for so many years,it is like an old friend to us now.
I would stand in your doorways my children and watch you sleep.
I wondered about your futures,I wondered who you would marry.
If we had moved away so many years ago,well,we did not.God knew.I did not.We stayed.
Look at you now with all those babies of your own.
Life goes on.

I have walked through darkened churches.I sat there a while and prayed.
Feeling lost,then found.
I walked the halls and thought about the decisions made there.People came to God here.There really is nothing else.
Life changing decisions.
Committees that I was on,now replaced with new committees.
People getting things done.
Arguments in Christ's name, now seem so petty.So silly.
Life goes on.

So you see I am the person who goes back
At my age I still go back,I see the things of my life.I walked forever in these places. I hope I always will.
Life goes on and it is good.

1 comment:

Melissa said...

Mike, thanks for sharing. That was really nice and very well written. I could totally picture those places as if I had been there too. Thanks for sharing.