The last few years have me thinking about endings.

My baby graduating from high school and leaving for college is the end of my career as a mother with children at home. That’s a big ending for me; I started this gig in 1987 when my first child was born. Those three decades make up most of my life, and they were years that I loved. It is hard to let go of that era.

I’m freshly aware that those endings usually lead to some kind of beginning.  Of course, those beginnings also have endings, but there is so much in between. That is the substance of life, the stuff between the beginning and the ending.

Beginnings, endings and lots of in-betweens–and 31 days in October to reflect on them.

Day 1 Starting Where I Left Off

Day 2 Four Eyes

Day 3 My Grandmother’s Dishes

Day 4 Bay Blood

Day 5 Seeing Homeless People

Day 6 No Post–Johnny & Chelsea’s Wedding!

Day 7 No Post–Recovering from Wedding Weekend in Merced

Day 8 Foreshadowing

Day 9 Mom Brain

Day 10 It’s Complicated

Day 11 Warning Signs

Day 12 A New Reality

Day 13 Deborah’s House

Day 14 Open Windows

Day 15 A Thought for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day, October 15

Day 16 Some Things I Love About You, Fall

Day 17 Back into the Garden

Day 18 No Post: Heading to the beach for a long weekend.

Day 19 No Post: It was like summer there–clear and warm, crowded with people in bathing suits eating ice cream.

Day 20 No Post: We swam in the ocean, walked on the beach, watched the sunset.

Day 21 No Post: Long conversations over cold beer.  And I finished reading an entire book.

Day 22 No Post, Again: It was a little taste of summer and youthfulness before heading into winter.

Day 23 Feet on the Ground

Day 24 A Plastic Lid

Day 25 Small Steps

Day 26 Neighbors

Day 27-31 And that’s all she wrote. A few days short.