It's a strange thing to have an awareness & acceptance of the future without really understanding what it all means. My kids are now 10 & 12, but I can already see ahead to the time when they'll be gone at college. Why is this image more present these days? As they continue to grow into their own selves, with unique senses of humor and interests, you start seeing the people they'll become. You start seeing the relationship you'll have with these people, not these children.
How will I react when that time comes? I've always rationally known that those days would come, just I've always known that they would mark a point when my wife & I would be alone together again. How will I think of the children then? Will I keep reminiscing about their early childhood, as I do today, wistfully flipping through photos of their earliest days? Will I instead longingly reflect on their middle school & high school years, as they grew into the people we'd hoped they would?
I keep telling myself that we don't know what those days hold. I only know that I treasure every minute right now. every smile, every hug, every laugh, and every "I love you." I will look back on these days somewhere down the line, but I will not regret anything, for I will know I enjoyed them to the fullest when they were here.
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