Looking back at youth in the reflection of the library window.

As I sit upon the library steps,
The warm spring sun heats my skin.
I observe the trees swaying with the gentle breeze.

Was it so long ago, maybe 20 years or more,
that I sat upon these same steps as a young girl?
Only then did I ponder what adventures awaited me,
In the fresh, new life before me.

Now as I sit, magazines on my lap,
I wonder where those years have gone
And what life’s true meaning is.

I slip back into my youth and visualize
my girlfriends approaching this same corner,
I run to them with endless energy and excitement,
And we peer at cute boys passing by and giggle.

Now this is just a lifetime away as my strength is now listless,
And young boys are that of my son’s age.

I look back upon the reflection in the bookstore window,
For a brief moment I see the young, pretty, smiling face
of my former self.
But it diminishes quickly as the wrinkles around my
weary eyes start to show,
And the once slim, healthy body, turns into
The motherly body I now own.

The things I could have done,
the potential we are given when we are young,
seems nothing but wasted as I realize what now awaits
me at home.
A cluttered little house, with barely enough room. Children and dirty dished everywhere.
Bills to pay that there is never enough money cover.
Lost empty feelings towards my once youthful lover.

If I could only push back the hands of time,
How different things could be.

But for now I must return to the world of the present,
and appreciate the little lives that God himself
Has bestowed upon me.

For now it is my children’s turn to soak up childhood joy,
And my turn to pass on my youth unto them.
I happily watch as my ride appears around that corner,
and four little me’s smile and wave out the car window
at their mommy…me!

What WOULD have I missed if I did turn back the clock of time?