You snippeteers tell me this often - that you read just the right words at just the right time - as if a certain snippet was meant specifically for you.

No coincidence when messages reach us exactly at the time we need to hear them.

In yoga class Wednesday morning, instructor Michele repeated "accept where you are" several times during the hour, as we held our bodies in various poses. What she meant was to accept however we were in the poses; that however we were doing the position was right and good - and to forget trying to perfect it.

The phrase resonated with me during this Back-to-School week. After watching kiddies in our neighborhood climb onto the school bus and viewing all the sweet back-to-school photos on social media (including my 3 tall grandSingys here!), I felt melancholy.

It's an annual feeling.

I posted on facebook how quiet the first day of school is for me - because I truly miss those days. The message to parents was to enjoy this era as it's happening because it ends all-too-quickly:

To all the parents shuffling your kids off to school and settling them into dorm rooms ... enjoy this time before it's gone.

My house has too many empty rooms. There are no kids in my kitchen to make breakfast for, no lunches to pack, no Target runs clutching a school supply list, no new shiny backpacks laying on the floor, no dorm bedspreads or mini fridges to haul.

I miss the school activities, the ice cream socials, washing uniforms, volunteering, helping with school projects, playing School Bus Driver, attending Back to School Nights, high school rings, and Parents' Weekends at colleges. The busyness, the involvement, the teachers, other school moms ... I miss all of it.

That era is gone ... POOF! My kiddies are grownups now without backpacks.

So please ... savor this time, because sooner than you expect, your POOF! will come, too, and you'll look back and think, "Where the heck did that time go?"

And you may not like your empty rooms either.

Yes, I must ACCEPT WHERE I AM. I am not the young mom anymore of school and college age kids. I am a 65-year-young woman, now a Nonna. My four babies are independent and do not live here any longer. I am in a different era, a different place - and my reality is good, albeit different. I feel thankful and blessed.

Last weekend, I cleaned out my daughter's "little girl" room of angel furniture, knickknacks she once collected, school folders, gel pens, teen novels, wall posters, stuffed animals, school-logo'ed sweatshirts, and a prom gown ... items for which she no longer needs. I decided - well then, neither do I. Why keep these items if walking into her room only makes me sad for "what was?" Why even keep her room intact? She's not using it; she's been out of the house - out of Maryland - for 7 years now!

Accept where I am.

Snippeteers ... accept where YOU are. That goes for weight / body type, career / retirement, marital / single status, houses / cars, your / your kids' ages, and every other thing or situation in between.

Longing for "what is no longer" and being unaccepting about "where we are" does not serve us. It's time to clean out that feeling.

5 TIPS FOR A WOMAN

WHEN LOOKING FOR A MAN

1. It's important to find a man who will help you around the house.
2. It's important to find a man who makes you laugh.
3. It's important to find a man you can count on and doesn't lie.
4. It's important to find a man who will spoil you.
5. It's important that these four men never meet.

Snippeteers - I can't always be trusted to remember everyone's locale. PLEASE remember to include your TOWN / STATE when you backtalk ...

even if you think I know it already!

"This one hit home for me! I took my 2 granddaughters and their 2 friends to the beach for a week and stayed in a condo we have rented before. The first night, we heard someone trying to get in the door. I called out - You have the wrong place! but they kept trying. I called the police. Meanwhile, we could hear them say, I got it, so 5 of us leaned against the door to stop entry. The girls were terrified (so was I) and were crying. Someone yelled, We're plumbers - you have a leak. Your rental agency should have called. I said - No leak. No call!

Police arrived. Our toilet was leaking into the unit below; they shut down one bathroom. The management company had given the plumbers a key - said no one was there - yet never called us.

I was upset for a few days - then tried to let it go. This was my one trip to the beach and I didn't want to ruin it. The vacation was FUN! Love the beach!"  

~ Karen in Maryland

"I think that way about divorce. When my friends are divorcing, my advice is ... remember there must have been a reason why you got married. There must have been some love there, probably lots of it, for many years, so WHY focus on the bad stuff? It takes more energy to do that than to remember the good stuff. And if you have children, they are part of the good stuff and deserve to hear about your good memories. Now I know this is an over-simplification of life, but it seems this is a better use of your energy than the bitterness."

~ Joanne in New York

anything worth doing or having

is a little frightening