In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

Robert Frost

I was thinking today about how life is like a river. It keeps going regardless of how one might feel about it. Just as I can’t stop the river, I also can’t stop the passing of time. It never fails that when I come here, I see a child’s beach ball or raft floating out from the beach to the tree line across the lake. The water is continuous and at times strong depending on the part of the river. There are sandbars where river goers stop to rest or just eat and enjoy the scenery. The sunsets are breathtaking on the tree-lined water.

My husband’s Papaw (W.L. Presley) took this land and worked it until it became the beautiful lake and campground that I first saw when I came “down here” from Terry, Mississippi. My first memories are seeing Papaw at the gate and finding out that he played basketball against my Grandpop. I don’t know if I’m just sentimental (I really am) or maybe my children getting older is starting to get to me. Today at the lake there were an influx of memories on the beach.

I can see that engaged couple dancing on the beach at midnight on New Years Eve. The young bride-to-be knows this will be her new home soon. I can almost hear the baby laughing and splashing as it was his first time to get in the water… eighteen years ago. Now there are two kids in the water trying to flip over their momma’s raft and she’s laughing at their effort. . The dad has joined them and they’re stopped at a sandbar trying to catch minnows with the leftover crumbs of Doritos the momma has packed. Squeals of excitement over falling off the inner tube are drowned out by the boat.

And, suddenly, I look around and realize that couple has been married over twenty years. One child is going to college and the other can wear her momma’s shoes. There is a new child, a toddler who blessed his parents later in life. And as I look at him, I see the baseball player with whom I fell in love, I see his older brother in the blonde curls on his head, his sister in the twinkle in his eyes as he splashes. And I realize that life does move on…. continuously. Just like the river. Whether I’m ready for it or not. But I know there are more wonderful memories to be made at the Outing.