Alexander Family's Big Adventure: I don't want to look back

Mom left. She'd been here for three weeks, but I felt like I hardly saw her.

She was both glad and sad to be leaving, as one would expect after being with the grandkids for three weeks, but also being away from home for three weeks. I am all sad that she's gone. It will probably be over a year until I see her again. That's depressing. Really, very depressing.

What's NOT depressing is the fact that I haven't missed out on seeing Mom and knowing Mom since the year 2000, when I got out of the Navy. For the last 18 years, she has supported me, prayed for me, helped me, and spent quality time with me (and my family, for ten years), and just overall been quite an incredible blessing to me. I thank God for her always.

During this time while my kids are little and we're having great adventures, I keep wondering what I'll think about when I'm 85 or 90. What years will I look back on as the best years of my life? Sometimes people ask me if I would repeat high school or the Navy if I could. No. No. No! No, I don't want to go back. I don't even want to look back. Or, more accurately, I don't want to live in the past.

Sure, I have many good memories. For example, the year I got out of the Navy, Mom flew out to San Francisco and we took the long way across the country to get home. What a great trip that was! I've backpacked across the Grand Canyon (three times in two trips) seen much but not all of the U.S., traveled with my husband, met wonderful people, and made a beautiful family (thanks to God). But none of that wonderful good stuff makes me long to be back where I once was. I'm usually content with my life but at the same time, looking forward to all that my future holds. Watching the kids grow, feeling a closeness with my husband that just isn't felt with the busyness of raising little kids, growing old with him and having grandkids. I know there will be sorrow in my life, some of which I can't even think about without getting tears in my eyes. My mom shocked me on this trip by saying that she didn't want to live to be 100. I mean, come on! What will I do without her when I'm 75?!

I made my first day trip to Mainz with Mom while she was here. We visited an awesome museum in the basement of a mall. A website about it says this:

"The visitor can expect to travel back in time to the world of cultic Rome in a sensational staging. During a walk through the preserved remains of the sanctuary, in addition to its walls, exhibits such as oil lamps, offerings, terracotta, magic clay dolls, altars, coins, white tablets, miniature axes, bronze statuette or grave goods can be discovered." (Courtesy of Google Translate.)

It was very cool. A volunteer tour guide told us that it is one of the few places in the world where both the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Eastern goddess Mater Magna were worshipped in the same temple. I personally found this to be more interesting than the Gutenberg Museum. (Can't help it. It was a museum of books. Even though it had some of the first printed bibles, I wasn't in love with it like I was with the basement of this shopping center.) Mainz has a Roman history dating from the first century after Christ to about the year 500. Fascinating.

We also visited two cathedrals. The pictures below are from St. Martin's. The other one we visited was recommended to us by the wonderful Isis museum volunteer. It had blue windows. Every bit as interesting as the St. Martin's windows. I was tired and didn't take any pictures. You see, it was a situation where I would normally ask to take photos, and I didn't want the challenge at that moment of the language barrier. I suspect (hope and pray) that I will make it back there soon!

Please tell me. What have been the best years of your life?