The last four years have found such changes in my life.  The move from the Bay Area after 30 years.  From our home of 23 years.  The loss of a soul sister.  Al was travelling for work, and I found myself alone for much of the time, and in that quiet space I remembered who “Mary” is – apart from wife, mother, physical therapist, parish volunteer.   I wondered what I wanted to do with myself now that the kids were raised, now that my body was not as anxious to continue working in clinical physical therapy anymore.

Suddenly,  I found myself looking back at my life as the space station looks back at earth.  I considered that,  in the thirty years since I was 25,  I had gone to PT school, gotten married, raised my three precious baby boys into men I am so proud of and so honored that they were entrusted to such an imperfect but earnest  and loving mother.

All of that had happened in a thirty year span of my adulthood!  It occurred to me that if I lived to be 85 and carried on the clear-headed anti-dementia gene that my mother and grandmother were blessed with, that I had a whole ‘nother adult lifetime ahead of me.  Just as I looked out into the world as a twenty-something and wondered where I would go and what I would do, I was looking at yet again that time span, albeit with perhaps less energy and more aches and pains.  I gleaned an understanding of the concept of time.

Even though it feels like it is all moving so much more quickly now, I have a choice .  I can lament the looming dwindling of my days here on earth and procrastinate them away.  Or.  I can look at them with the fresh eyes of a twenty five year old girl and make my dreams come true before it is too late.

Thus the piano lessons. And the singing.  And the ice skating lessons.  And the quilting.  And the writing.  And becoming a Medicare provider to be able to see patients privately.

And now.  I applied for a job as a lab instructor at a local college PTA (Physical Therapy Assistant) program.   The interview went well.  Yesterday I presented an “audition” lab for faculty and students.  Today I was offered the position.  It is part time.  I am ecstatic and not just a bit nervous.  I am so ready to pass on the wisdom and experience and knowledge I have collected over 31 years as a PT.

Today on my Facebook page a friend mused that it seemed like yesterday she was getting her first job and was now today applying for Social Security.  I can relate.  It seems like yesterday I followed the bad boyfriend out to New York, got the only job I could with a philosophy degree – receptionist in a physical therapy department of a small town hospital – and was introduced to the field of physical therapy.  I went back to school with a spring in my step and the whole world in front of me.  Now here I am, on the other end, with gray hair that requires regular trips to my colorist, ready to share the passion of my chosen career with new eager young people.  And I have been granted the privilege to do just that.

In the August before PT school began in 1982,  I joined Al and another friend out in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire for a bohemian beach vacation.  One night Al and I went to a little boardwalk bar to see Dave Mason – it was magic and we were in love.  Guess who is playing (he’s bald) in San Juan Capistrano tonight?  Yep.  Dave Mason. We’re going to go and listen to a once young musician, now old, share with us what he has learned through his voice and guitar since that hot summer night on an East Coast boardwalk. Once again your favorite philosopher is going to try to make sense of the questions of time and life and what’s it all mean, Mr. Natural?