"On Firsts and Lasts"

It was the last opportunity to watch the 11-year-old grandgirl play volleyball, perhaps for a long time.  This sparkle of a girl, the one with the contagious laugh who loves unicorns and sloths, is moving away and involvement in her daily life isn't going to be so easy.  I remember when she was born; I remember seeing her and holding her for the first time.

Life is filled with firsts and lasts, much of it measured in that description of experience.  How often do we say, "That was the first time......" or  "I remember the last......?"  

"There's a first time for everything."--first steps, a first day of school, a first kiss, a first job, a first home, a first time at parenting.  And then there are the lasts--the last day of school and graduation, the last day at work before retirement, the last night at home before our children leave the nest, the last contact with a loved one before their passing. Firsts and lasts are often milestones, markers in life; at the very least they are our memories.

I found myself wondering why we do that--think and speak in terms of the first and the last. I don't have an answer; I don't even know if it is a part of other cultures.  In my part of the world it is how we, as humans, measure time and experience, and I don't know if we can do any other. The first of anything carries with it the idea of a new start or beginning, a fresh approach, a clean slate.  And yet, "All good things must come to an end."  

Each of our lives is an individual story, with myriads of firsts and lasts. One with a beginning and an end, it is everything in between that truly matters, those chapters that fill up the book that is our life.  Nothing is more important than living one's life well and living it in truth and light.  I may say all kinds of words but, in the end, the pages are filled with how I live my life.

The first day of life also brings with it the last day of life; the first breath of life will end with a last breath.  It is an inevitable.  I am of the conviction that the last of this physical life becomes the first of another, with life continuing on, one with no end.  "Last" has no place in that next realm as that IS what eternity is.  

Thankfully, as I watched the sparkly grandgirl play volleyball, I wasn't of the mindset that it might be a last time.  That would have taken away from the pure pleasure and joy of watching her.  Actually, I am thinking I can easily plan a trip to Idaho during volleyball season.  And that will be a first but not a last.