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My News Addiction By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Okay. It’s confession time. I need to explain why my housework is more Oscar than Felix, my fridge contains six-day-old rotisserie chicken carcasses, and supper may be breakfast food again. I need to admit the reason I haven’t published a book isn’t lack of fodder or writer’s block. […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman Dang, it used to be fun in the sun. Life was simpler when we could tan all day and our only worry was getting a sun burn. Yes, sunburn hurt, but it was usually worth it. There was no mention of skin cancer back then so ignorance was bliss. Our skin […]
By Lisa Batten Kunkleman The birds flew back into our empty nest. Quiet slipped out the back door, to be replaced by chatter, showers, cars and friends galore. The living room became a drop off spot for book bags, jackets, and laptops. Oh, and shoes, brass instruments and music stands. They’re ba-ack. And oh how […]
I used to stroll our three babies through the mall in their extra- long, stadium-style triple stroller. Every few yards, people said, “You really have your hands full,” or, “Better you than me.” Now friends say, “How’re you doing?” and “I’m praying for you,” and “It must be so quiet at your house with […]
Senior Year with Triplets: Reminiscing Over Photos for the Senior Yearbook Page It’s real. Oh my gosh! They’re seniors. All three of our eighteen-year-old kids are likely to go to college and leave us as empty nesters next year. I can’t stop reminiscing while trying to pick out pictures of important times in our triplets’ […]
Letter to my Children about Happy and Unhappy Endings
By Lisa Kunkleman
How do we know if it’s an unhappy ending? Is anything really an ending or just a step toward something else? I remember talking to a wise man about how much I was going to miss having a baby around the house, once our first child grew out of all that cuteness and we’d no longer walk around the colorful paraphernalia that filled every room. How would we feel about her independence and clearing the path for her to walk away from us?”
That very wise man told me that for every thing you lose from that baby stage, you get something even more special with each new stage. As a child grows in size and independence, she also grows in ability to communicate and there’s nothing quite like enjoying the changes in communication through the years.
He said, “Just wait till she’s nine. That’s such a fun age. And what conversations you will have. For all the happiness you think is ending, you’ll receive new happy beginnings.”
Now I understand that what seems like endings are just the long continuum of life and the joys, sorrows, and surprises it brings.The transition is so smooth that you hardly know when you’ve seen the last this or that as you pick up a new other. I’m not sure I believe in happy or unhappy endings unless it’s in a book or movie where there’s no sequel. Even then, if enough people ask for it, sometimes there’s another chapter to that story; there’s always more to come.
You may think you didn’t get the happy ending you wanted; you may rationalize that this is the way it was meant to be. I’d say, this might not be the end of the story. I’m waiting for the sequel.
