Taking a bite of the sandwich

 As both a parent and a child, I have had more than my share of milestone moments in the past several months.  My parents celebrated 50 years of marriage, and us kids reminisced about the past as well as realized the reality of their present state of health, and how we would need to assist more in making sure things for them continued in a safe and healthy state. Each has had aches and pains that has meant closer scrutiny, and that uncomfortable feeling for us all that they are no longer the same people in so many of those slides we reviewed at their anniversary party.

Along with this, my daughter had circled her 15 1/2 birthday on the calendar and started taking driver's ed.  There is simply no where to turn to get away from life moving on, is there?

They call people like me part of the sandwich generation, and while the analogy puts me in the middle between two slices of 'bread' - caring for my parents on one hand, caring for my child on the other - I certainly don't feel like there's much left of me to be considered the meat.

Yet life has a funny way of including me in on its demands, and I am happily gaining employment as a sole proprietor, which is it's own set of stresses.

So while I spend a fair amount of time helping to promote others' interests, I am also safeguarding my parents' and sitting in the passenger seat watching my daughter pursue hers.  It is a full life right now and like being on the road with a teenager behind the wheel, I need to stay alert, pay attention and learn, learn learn.

Provided I do what I instruct my daughter to do - keep your eyes open and watching all directions, don't be too nervous, but don't be too casual - and what I have learned from my parents - take life as it comes, have faith, stay steady and level headed - I pray that I will reach my own destination as well in one piece.