Don’t forget to look in the rear view mirror to see how far you’ve come, she said.
A dear friend of mine said this to me awhile back. She, like me, lost her husband to cancer. She was my age with several young children when he passed twenty-some years ago.
We’d been on this stretch of road for so long. The landscape began to look the same, mile after mile. It was almost as if we were not moving at all.
Then she said to look back. Check your six, as my dad once told me.
Sure enough, I saw it. The curves, the bumps, twists, and the spikes. I looked ahead. It all looked the same at the time, but when I looked back, none of it was that at all.
I just couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see the progress.
I couldn’t see how far we had come because all I could see was how far we had to go.
It was only when I looked back that I saw the winding road we’d traveled. Other tracks beside ours. And those behind us, who were navigating the twists and turns of new loss.
It was all there.
I just couldn’t see it then.
But I can now.
We continue to travel forward, our family. We’ve not yet reached our destination. More twists. More turns. More bumps and a few more sharp spikes.
We’ve got a ways to go. We’ll get there.
Until then, we’ll keep looking in the rear view mirror and appreciate just how far we’ve come. đź’™
#lookingintherearviewmirror #laughterafterdeath #wanderingwidow #itsme #lifebeginsnow