Life Is Ever Changing

Melanie spent her first night in her new apartment. And Hello Kitty reigns supreme over her bedroom. It kinda resembles her childhood bedroom. Filled with pinks and lavenders and big stuffed Hello Kitty dolls.
I wonder if it will stay decorated that way after she is married.
Our house is empty, in two ways. Furniture is gone. We gave her just about every stick of furniture in our living room, which leaves us with a Bedouin tent look.
Oriental Carpets and some pillows is about all you see.
Its almost refreshing to me to have nothing around, but I know its not practical to expect guests to sit on the floor.
It would be easy to clean though.
This morning Melanie called me to go for a swim with her at her apartments pool. It reminded me of when the girls were little and we had a pool and spent long days swimming and sunning.
All the changes and all the new plans has made me a bit reflective. Life is ever changing and we should grow with the changes. Being stagnant is a cause of many of life's problems. Refusing to accept that things do change, that our life is ever evolving. Growth comes from changes. I love all the memories I have but realize too that those moments existed for just the second they happened, and today, it is the same. The very second that I am writing will never happen again, nor did it happen before now. Even aging gets some folks all in a tizzy, worried about facing the inevitable, our own death. Or even simple normal things like gray hair and wrinkles. We want to turn back the clock. But, we are so much happier, deeply content if we accept the normal changes of life. Children grow, leave home, start families of their own, we age, enter into a new phase of our own lives, with a bit more freedom and wisdom to enjoy it.
Each day is a gift, each breath a miracle.
I woke today, thinking about my last child leaving the nest and happy for her, that such a fun chapter in her life is unfolding. I have watched Melissa in the last year and a half, blossom and become so self assured, so capable. So content.
Steven building a home for his new beginning and here we are, Emery and I, more in love than ever, buying new furniture, laughing about not having to report in and being able to be flexible in so many aspects of life. Change is exciting !

Pictures from todays walk around the place