I Blinked, and This Happened

I took a photo of my daughter a few days ago. She was sitting at the table in the dining room with me, we were talking, and as she was telling me stories and laughing and having a good time being the character she is, I took a couple of photos of her on my iPhone. There was a little girl sitting in front of me when I did so, but when I looked at the photo a few minutes later, I almost started to cry. Because the photo wasn’t the little girl I saw in front of me, it was of a lovely young lady. It was the first and most striking moment for me when I really became aware what I know to be the transition underway, out of childhood. I was floored and speechless.

A few weeks ago, as my son continued what’s become a weekly outing to local locations at which he’s been working with the Collings Foundation on their “Wings of Freedom” tour, I stood back and watched as he worked with the crews on the planes, looking more and more like a young adult member of the crew instead of the boy who, at half his current height, first ventured onto the same planes some 7 years ago or so, holding my hand along the way.

Tomorrow night I’ll attend their Middle School “Progression” Ceremony as they exit 8th grade and head towards their high school years. She’s signed up for volunteering with the local park/boating operation, he’s going to Texas for a week to visit a friend who moved out there and later this summer, a full week camping on Catalina Island. In between, the time we spend together will be increasingly filled with my being more of a driver and bystander as they continue to build out the friendships that will likely last a lifetime.

Last weekend, after dropping my son off at McClellan Air Force base where he worked with the Wings of Freedom again, I met my friend Matt for breakfast. Matt has been my friend since 7th grade, and as we dined and discussed our lives, his mother’s passing away last year, our latest ailments, and more memories than aspirations, I felt a bittersweet recognition that my life is now in its 3rd act while my children are where this friendship began for me, some 40+ years prior, at the age they are now.

It’s going by faster than I imagined, and as quickly as I was warned it would. Which is why I want to make the most of it, with recognition and appreciation for how fleeting it truly is.