Going out & Coming in

I am now the age my mother was, when we would go back to Oklahoma and visit, after the divorce of my parents
My mom is now the age of her mother, then
I’m back in Atlanta visiting and all the memories flow in
Some are great and some are painful 
They are not all bad or all good 
They are all of it, at the same time 
Atlanta helped form me
My mom formed me 
The flow of life 
The feeling of family 
My youngest niece Casey, just had a baby girl 
She’s a fantastic mother and the baby looks just like her
Casey was born nine months after my grandmother died 
I was her age when she was born
It’s the cycle of life 
A circle of unbroken love 
An unending pattern of genes
One generation to the next 
One hand holds a little one and one hand holds the aging one 
We let go and we welcome in 
It’s all the feelings I can possibly feel
Awe and wonder about this little girl and who she’ll be
Remembering her mother at that age
Remembering me at her age
Thinking about my grandmother, long gone now
And my mother, still here making me laugh
Knowing I’ll be her age one day as well 
We have a life here
We never know long it will be 
We don’t get to choose our family 
We make it by holding the hands of the newest and the oldest and being grateful for both