I (along with Dexter) attended the graduation ceremonies of Howard Payne University today. Events of this nature seem to always take me back in my history to great times. Pomp and Circumstance, formality, family, uncomfortable hooping and hollering when one moves from stage left to right after shaking hands with the president of the university, etc..... We were on the floor directly next to the band and able to see the faces of students and they prepared to cross the stage. My mind this time went back to the day I helped Dexter move into the dorms four years ago - the kids whom were to become his best friends and how change just has to happen. I often pride myself in recognizing when change happens and embracing the new and all that it brings. But, there is something about this getting older that can be painful - you know that nose pressure and sensitive pain in the chest that is like tears but not. Dexter is and has moved on working full-time at a great church in a job that he just loves and today I begin to hear stories from some of his best friends of going to Iraq on a short-term mission trip, heading off to seminary to study for the ministry, leaving for the Dominican Republic to serve two years in a school, marriage, journeyman and so on. May God grant them safety, happiness and fulfillment in such wonderful endeavors. And may God grant me some continued wonderful memories of simple yet poignant moments from the past. Change happens - memories linger!
Oh! that the memories which survive us here Were half so lovely as these wings of thine! Pure relics of a blameless life, that shine Now thou art gone. --Tennyson
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