Milestones
Recently my wife and I had the joy of celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was one of those occasions where the day itself was busy with the usual work, kids at school/day-care and plenty of timings that needed to be met to allow life to work. While my wife cooked a nice dinner and I brought home some flowers and sparkling wine, we could have easily let the day pass by without much fuss; however the next week my wife had organised for us to have a child-free day (rare!). With this unaccustomed opportunity we thought we still need to celebrate the milestone - another year doing life together and shepherding our little family through the trials and challenges of the past 12 months. It was a hot day, and for something a little more special, I had decided we would drive to a distant location for a lunch date. While the food was delicious and the setting (see picture above) was pretty stunning, the time I enjoyed most was the drive and being able to talk about interesting adult topics for once; actually connecting with my spouse over where she and I were at physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Milestones are in one sense arbitrary: if you maintain a marriage, stay alive, continue attending school you are inevitably going to have another anniversary, birthday or graduate (I guess graduate is not guaranteed with attendance, but its a start!). Milestones can also carry special meaning though, depending on how you view them - celebrating the time spent with loved ones or achieving an important goal. While the day/time itself might not be that special in the grand scheme of life (see perspective and past-perspective), celebrating wins whether big or small give something to look forward to, positive memories and ultimately hope.
Milestones also serve as checkpoints to pause and consider the path travelled and what lies ahead. The original term mile-stone would denote stone markers set up on the side of a road/similar to mark the number of miles travelled or miles left before reaching a certain destination. These dated back to Roman times and perhaps even earlier. In ancient texts, there are documentations of people setting up stones, or piles of stones as monuments to remind and tell others that something significant happened here. These monuments were designed to pass stories down through generations, or prompt passers-by to ask "what is the significance of those stones?" there-by passing history through space (travellers) and time (future generations). Two biblical examples that come to mind are Jacob's dream of the stairway to heaven and Joshua leading the Israelites through the Jordan river into the promised land. In both of these examples the travellers (first Jacob solo and then hundreds of years later, all his descendants!) were taking journeys on paths they hadn't travelled before, exploring new territory. The monuments they set up served as points to see how far they had come, as well as consider and plan where they were going to next.
With this in mind, although sometimes these events can feel underwhelming and just another day to get on with, they can provide a useful waypoint in your life's journey; a point to stop and reflect on both the sojourn that has been taken so far, and the road ahead. Make use of these moments. If you look back and are unhappy with where you have got to or where you are headed, this is a perfect time to course correct and find a new destination to be aiming for. If the progress is where you were aiming, then some time can be taken to stop and celebrate, as well as plan the next part of the journey.
Celebrate your milestones.
(P.S. Happy anniversary Hun!)
"Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it." Gen 28 v 18
"They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down.9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day." Josh 4 v 8b - 9