Anticipating Another Season

As anxious as I've been to usher in Fall,
there's one in our house who is more excited than me
for seasons to change.

She's been tugging at my free time
to listen to her thoughts
as she sorts them out,
organizing as she goes along.

I listen as though
there's going to be a test later.
It's not that she hates the season she is in,
but is really wondering when the next season
is going to appear.

She's in the twenty-year-old Season.
The going-to-school-and-working-season.
The I'm-my-best-self-and-now-what-season.


We went to a wedding reception Saturday--
a former missionary came back and married a young woman
from our area.
Darling couple.
It was a quick courtship/engagement for them,
from our perspective,
but from their's I'll bet time dragged along.

So Nana and I were talking about
what every almost 20 year old talks about--
young men and marriage,
right?
She's had the attention of some really neat young men.
But not the "right" one--
you know the one that feels like a warm sweater
on a cold day.
Not the one she has her sights on anyway.
Isn't there always the unreachable one?
Yeah there's one of those in her world.
Swooning is an apt word for Nana
when this one is around.
This girl who always has lots to say,
whose laughter is easy
and giggles are abundant--
turns into a mute
when a certain young man comes in the room.
She stands there with her teeth in her mouth,
smiling
with nothing to say--
nothing coherent anyway.
She openly admits she's "a mess" when he's around.
It's hilariously pathetic.

We joke that if "he" showed up at the door
and spoke of his undying love for her,
she'd say "yes" and beat a path to the nearest Temple!
Forget the bridal shower!
Nix the invitations!
Who cares about a wedding dress?!
We laugh at the ridiculousness.

Her words and emotions tethered together,
my counsel is
always
always
the same:

"Enjoy the season you are now in.
You're where you're supposed to be,
doing what you're supposed to be doing.
And whatever lay ahead of you
will be exciting and worth the wait.
Continue to prepare yourself for the temple,
because that's where the right young man
will want to take you and claim you forever."

And then, I giggle with her
over the possibilities of dreams coming true.
The what-ifs and all the silliness of this season
in her life...
My free time runs its course,
but this conversation hasn't,
so my ears are tuned to her channel
whenever she wants to think outloud,
I'm there.
Because this is what Mothers do, I think.
Because my own mother wasn't there for me
in any season.
Because I am a romantic at heart--
all gooey and mushy in the middle.
And when the next season shows itself,
it'll be just as lovely as the one we're in right now
and I want a front seat to it all.
every season has its own beauty,
yes?