THE NEXT GENERATION . . .

      This week I received from my nephew a text message telling me that he and his wife have a healthy 7 pound 9 ounce baby girl.
The previous day his sister posted a picture of her baby girl born last Spring.  And, earlier this year, another niece had twins . . .a daughter and a son.

     Just in the ten-years-and-younger generation of our extended family, I count my daughter's two adopted children; one brother's children have six 'little ones'; the other brother is the grand-father to three.  And, I have four grand-children over twenty years of age, and one of those has two sons.  How did these 'children' get old  enough to be married and having children?  No doubt, our father who would have been 102 last Tuesday and his father who would have been 130 (!) on Friday, once wondered something comparable about their progeny.

     Over Thanksgiving many in the extended family will gather (as has been the custom for many years) at the North Carolina brother's farm.  Already we know that some of the 'children' (over 30, mind you) will be unable to attend this year.  Others will have their 'introductions' to wide assortment of individuals known collectively as 'family'.

    Somewhere in Holy Writ is the reminder that "a generation comes and a generation goes".  But while we are here together . . .
(complete the thought . . .).

      Satchel