I love the passing of time

Had a big long phone conversation with my next older sister about an hour ago. Has me thinking about parenting and about the shifting relationships in my family (my sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews) over our lives. Funny how old memories pop up, things that you had totally forgotten about, years & days & nights. Times when we were friends, times when we were far apart, at different stages in our lives, all of us - but, still that same connection, that same starting place for all of us.

My next older sister is looking for a new house. Through all of the shifts in her life, divorces, moves, death of a teen daughter & an infant granddaughter, she’s at a point now where it’s just her & her two elementary school boys. This afternoon, she’s having a realtor show her the house across the street from mine. Despite the fact that we’ve had our ups & downs, have different lifestyles sometimes, have different ways of going about life (and don’t we all?), I’m kind of hoping that she decides to make an offer on it. It would be nice. Family is nice to have around - both for ourselves & for our kids.

I’ve got this song going through my head right now.

Chinese Café
by Joni Mitchell print

Caught in the middle
Carol we’re middle class
We’re middle aged
We were wild in the old days
Birth of rock ‘n’ roll days
Now your kids are coming up straight
And my child’s a stranger
I bore her
But I could not raise her
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long

Down at the Chinese Cafe
We’d be dreaming on our dimes
We’d be playing “Oh my love, my darling”
One more time

Uranium money
Is booming in the old home town now
It’s putting up sleek concrete
Tearing the old landmarks down now
Paving over brave little parks
Ripping off Indian land again
How long how long
Short sighted business men
Ah nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long

Down at the Chinese Cafe
We’d be dreaming on our dimes
We’d be playing “You give your love, so sweetly”
One more time

Christmas is sparkling
Out on Carol’s lawn
This girl of my childhood games
With kids nearly grown and gone
Grown so fast
Like the turn of a page
We look like our mothers did now
When we were those kids’ age
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Down at the Chinese Cafe
We’d be dreaming on our dimes
We’d be playing
“Oh my love, my darling
I’ve hungered for your touch
A long lonely time
And time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me”
(Time goes - where does the time go
I wonder where the time goes)