Comings and Goings

Comings and Goings                   

By John W. Vander Velden

 

It is natural to wish for constants.  Things we know to always be the things we know.  And there are those truths that will always remain, but in each of our lives there will be comings and goings.  Concepts, and fads arrive with much fanfare, and fade nearly as quickly.  Yet the most important arrivals and departures are people.

The passing years have taught me that comings and goings are as much a part of my life as the air, I draw in and the breath I expel.  I cannot clearly remember the faces of my second grade classmates I abandoned to another state in 1959.  I know many held importance to my young life, but they remain only in the foggy memories of a passed long gone.  Those of my fourth grade remain a bit clearer left behind as I was towed along on my family’s migration a thousand miles north.  Yet I know I was changed by them, by their coming and going.

That is the point.  Each of us have had people, important people come and go.  Some only touch our lives an instant.  Others remain with us for many years.  A parent has always been there…then not.  A child enters our universe nearly consuming our vision of reality, filling our everyday with hopes and concerns, worries and awards.  The child grows…hopefully…changes as he or she matures… and begins at last a life of her or his own.  Even that is a coming and going.

So the comings and goings are very much a part of life, and are shaped by these encounters.  We should not forget that we too have passed through the countless lives of others that we share this planet.  That the time and space we share with friends, family, co-workers, and even strangers, as we come into their lives and slip out, change not only ourselves but them as well.

I write these words as I think about my father.  For today would have been his ninety-third birthday.  Some might say I was fortunate to have had the massive amount of time with my parents.  Working within the “family business” created a relationship uncommon in today’s world.  I will allow the good of it or the less than good to be determined by others, for I have nothing to use as contrast.  It was my life, and those comings and goings were like nothing I have face before or since.  Yes, my parents aided in shaping me into the person I have become, but it is my hope that over the years I had a hand of shaping them to some extent as well.

That is the purpose of this set of words.  To remind you and myself as well, that we come and go, passing through a world filled with people.  That we leave a mark.  It is important then to do my best, to leave a positive mark in the world, by my comings and goings, and earnestly pray that I do…

(504 Words)  3-7-2018