When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. - Helen Keller -

Door Ways

My little feet are running through the kitchen, through the back porch. I give the door a push and I jump over the step, into the backyard. The door immediately slams shut with a double bounce, so I hear it two times. Out I go, calling, “Grandpa? Where’s Grandpa?” A sense memory, complete with the smells of the garden, the sound of the door, the feel of the air on my skin, my heart filled with love. Now, this is but an echo of memory.

Doors are often transitions from one part of life to another. Once you go through the doorway, nothing is the same as before. Once you were out, now you are in. It is different. Sometimes you choose to go through the door into the beyond. Leaving behind what no longer works. Sometimes we stop to wonder at the difference. We say to ourselves, “That was then. This is now. Nothing is the same.”

We don’t always recognize the symbolic doors we pass through until sometime later. I think back to doors I’ve walked through. Leaving old jobs and colleagues behind. Walking out the door of marriage and a life ever altered for myself and my son. Walking through a school door and into a new career as a teacher. Doorways that I didn’t recognize as ended friendships. Thankfully finding new doors into fulfilling and healthy friendships.

I think of the doors that my son has already passed through. Doors that he will open without me in the days and years to come. Knowing my door, wherever it may be, will always welcome him home to me again. Yes, the door to my years as a single mother is starting to close as Derrick prepares to leave home in the upcoming months.

What doors I don’t yet recognize will open for me? One thing is certain, the door to my home now will be much quieter without the comings and goings of Derrick and his friends.

As I ready myself to enter new doorways, I think back to Grandpa’s door and do my best to realize that I’m always where I’m meant to be.

 When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

– The Sound of Music