and i want to tell them...it goes fast. the years from when you only imagine your children to those straggling years when you begin to realize they will be leaving you behind. the little curious two-year old who peered at me while standing near his father's leg...he will grow tall and run fast and go out into the world...in the blink of an eye. and when you look at him, you will see each year that has passed while his eyes are seeing the ones to come.
i don't want you to get the wrong idea. i am a very future-focused person and do not sit around mourning days of yore. i often don't even remember the small (and not-so-small) moments of the past. but, in that future-focused way, i am anticipating the flight of my first child ~ and it is both joyous (for him) and a smidge of melancholia (for me). for us....the fabric of our family, which will be stretched, changed irrevocably. as that is the way of things.
a series of lasts will be replaced by a series of firsts
or, at least, differents.
and it will be a different different
for each of us.
(just, of course, as it always is
in, perhaps, more subtle ways.)
we will miss each other for different reasons.
and it will be okay.
 |
| a pick-up game of basketball on the home court |
Joseph scores
Samuel scores
this is why i don't worry
about a grassy yard.
would you believe that a pick-up game of basketball got me thinking all these woe-is-me (not really) thoughts? but it just has struck me that....this won't happen as easily next year. or any year after that, in all likelihood (fingers crossed). and these playmates are going to miss each other! especially the ones left back here at 3703. so i am smiling and enjoying having both of my chicks under one roof and at the dinner table (metaphorically speaking). and now i know (or suspect) why my own parents are so very content when my brother and i are back under their roof and at their table. i will look forward to being where my children come home.
