Don't Change

Blink your eyes BLOG reader.  

One thing about aboynamedstu, that is equal parts awesome and not-so-awesome in that double edged sword sort of a way is my memory.  

Like most aboynamestu things, my memory which is awesome in some regards equally sucks in others.

Case in point.  After nearly 18 years of marital bliss I cannot retain the very exact, and consistent way in which My Lovely Bride orders her sandwich at The Great Outdoors.  Nor can I recall how she orders her burger.  That info is literally in one ear, out the other.  

Yet while sitting in a Senior Sunday Breakfast (I'm a Youth Counselor at Church) I can recall this moment (photograph below) perfectly even though it is six years in the rearview.

You see BLOG reader one of the two kids on the raft thing in the lake is a graduating senior.  And while his Mom and Dad talked to the group of senior families about all the ways in which their senior had grown and/or changed over the years, my idiot savant memory teleported me back to the very moment captured in the above photo, and I recall as if it was yesterday the thought that I'm going to blink my eyes and my Boy(s) standing on the shore will be as old as the kids on the raft.  

Which has come to pass.  MY Boy(s) are now pretty much the same ages as those boys playing in Lake Texoma in May 2006.

And even though I didn't take a picture during the Senior Breakfast, I had that indelible memory stamp thing I do where I knew that in a few more years, God willing, I'd be sitting there as a Senior's parent.  Talking about how much my Senior had changed and grown over the years.  I'd be looking at a young man, but remembering the Boy, either #1 or #2, and wondering where the time went.  Hoping I didn't waste it.  Miss anything.  By being sucked into the daily grind of living my life.  

The Dad of the kid on the raft above, now a Senior, said something profound during his speech. I'm paraphrasing of course, but it went something like this:

You don't see your children grow up.  Not in a rational way.  You still see the boy even though the boy is now a young man.

Which is true.  Living with someone day to day, you often miss the subtle changes that occur over time.  It's only when you stop and pause long enough to remember, or look at old photos or videos, that you realize how fast life moves. 

And that if you're smart, you'll slow down and enjoy it.

Until I BLOG again…Message received loud and clear.