Need some perspective?

Laughter in the Walls

I pass a lot of houses on my way home---
some pretty,
some expensive,
some inviting---
but my heart always skips a beat
when I turn down the road
and see my house nestled against the hill.
I guess I'm especially proud of the house and the way it
looks because
I drew the plans myself.
It started out large enough for us---
even had a study---
two teenaged boys now reside in there.
And it had a guest room---
my girl and nine dolls are permanent guests.
It had a small room Peg
had hoped would be her sewing room---
two boys swinging on the dutch door
have claimed this room as their own.
So it really doesn't look right now
as if I'm much of an architect.
But it will get larger again---
one by one they will go away
to work,
to college,
to service,
to their own houses,
and then there will be room---
a guest room,
a study,
and a sewing room
for just the two of us.
But it won't be empty---
every corner,
every nick
in the coffee table
will be crowded with memories.
Memories of picnics,
parties, Christmases, bedside vigils, summers,
fires, winters, going barefoot, leaving for vacation, cats,
conversations, black eyes,
graduations, first dates,
ball games, arguments,
washing dishes, bicycles,
dogs, boat rides,
getting home from vacation,
meals, rabbits, and
a thousand other things
that fill the lives
of those who would raise five.
And Peg and I will sit
quietly by the fire
and listen to the
laughter in the walls.

~ Bob Benson

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1