The Next Five Years

Here are two things that were making me happy this morning.  My beautiful tulips and my lovely daughter.  Isn't she darling?  This picture was taken approximately five minutes after the bus would have come.  Scott and I are big pushovers when it comes to the bus.  For the most part, Scott can take her to school on his way to the office, enabling Golda to spend an extra ten minutes accomplishing something instead of hiking up an icy hill and waiting on a frozen corner for the bus.  So she's not building character.  Oh well.  On the days I get to take her, I get in return for my time a conversation about school, college plans, frustrations, goals, solutions and insights.  In short, it's a seven-minute investment in our relationship.  The bus can't do that.  Unfortunately for Golda, the drive can also become a seven-minute lecture on not allowing yourself to infect the whole family with your negative energy, just because you're stressed.  The bus driver won't lay that at your feet, so there are benefits to occasionally hitching a ride with a big, yellow, neutral third party.  It's all good.

For Young Women's on Wednesday, Golda was in charge of the activity, at which the girls made time capsules and sealed them in ten-pound cans.  (Hers is in the picture)  Golda had some notes, pictures, and a pointe shoe in her can.  She asked me to write a note to her, and it was stunning to think that I was writing a note that would be opened in five short years, yet five years that will see incredible change in Golda's life.  In five years, she will be twenty years old!  If we can ever get Golda behind the wheel of a car, I won't be driving her places by then, and neither will the bus driver! 

My hope for Golda is that during the next five years, she makes decisions that will bring her closer to what she ultimately wants.  It's so easy to get derailed when you're young and emotional.  I hope she gets into the right school.  I hope she gets to dance at the level she aspires to.  I hope she makes the right decision about serving a mission.  I hope and pray that the proverbial Mr. Wrong will not factor in.  If Mr. Wrong comes along at the right time, he sure can look like Mr. Right.  I think Golda will be equipped to discern the difference, if she uses all the tools at her disposal:  being in the right places, knowing herself, keeping her life on track, keeping her standards high and most importantly, having a relationship with God.  If she keeps her eyes open for a guy who is a lot like her dad, grandfathers and uncles, she will be just fine.

A man at church recently talked about what drew him to the LDS church as an adult.  He said it was walking into church and seeing the men dressed in suits and ties, "acting like real men," as he put it,  taking on leadership and responsibility.  He craved that mantle of responsibility.  Of course, this is not unique to just our church, but it does help to be in a community where there is an expectation that the men will uphold both temporal and spiritual duties.  Certainly, there is room for flaws and mistakes, but the standard is there, reminding the men that they are both important and also accountable to God, their family and society.  So Golda knows what she is looking for that way.  She also has a strong sense of who she wants to be, independent of any relationship.

But who knows?  Life might have some big, fat curve balls in store for this girl, as it does for everyone.  I can't predict what will happen, or what Golda will seek after, or what life will give her instead.  I do know that, wherever she goes and whatever she chooses, Scott and I will be along for the ride.  Nothing, not even Golda's atrocious driving skills, could keep us from wanting to be there.