The Rocking Chair

I took a breath and sat down in the rocking chair for a moment. The past month had been a whirlwind both at work and home. I was finally able to take a breather and think back...

I remembered the journey this rocking chair had taken. First, from the JC Penney store to our house. To be put in the guest bedroom, now the babies room for our first child. It would have been about 18 years ago I first sat in the rocking chair, dreaming about the baby about to be born. Later. I sat in the chair in exhaustion at 3 am, waiting for him to fall back asleep after nursing. I can't remember how many times I rocked my sons in that chair. During happy times and sad.

When Mark's mom bought the cottage in Stone Lake, WI, we put it in the back of the car and took it up to the cottage. It was put in front of the fireplace and seemed to fit in with the rest of the family furniture. The rocker got a lot of use from other new babies, and older ones too. There was nothing like rocking on a cold winter night before the roaring fire.

Sitting in the rocker for one last time before we left the cottage for good, I thought of all of the fun times that rocker had seen. It had seen both tears of joy and sadness. Happiness and despair. The rocking chair was there for that magical Christmas at the cottage with the snow lightly falling. And the sparkling 4th of July celebrations. As I sat there in the quiet, I could hear the laughter over the years, and imagined the joy and support our rocker would offer to the new occupants of the cottage.