Edition 473 – Little Boy Blue

You arrived earlier in our lives, than was expected. Two weeks earlier, to be exact.

It was all a bit of a rush too. On the drive to the hospital, the drama set in, as I half wondered if you would end up holding up traffic, so keen were you to make your presence felt.
 
You were different from the start. Determined. Perhaps impatient. You wanted to do your own thing. It took a while to get our head around this, as the one that arrived prior to you was more compliant, more laid back….more him than you, really.
 
There were challenges early on. Like the stutter, that seemingly came out of nowhere. Yet patience and persistence, on your part, and that of your mother, helped you to work through it.
 
As the years passed, you grew into the you that you would eventually become. Beautifully spoken. Very stylish. Prepared to make your own mark, and be your own person, rather than follow the crowd.
 
You strapped on the football shirt one year and gave it a shot. It really wasn’t your scene, but you kept turning up each week, trying your best, but hanging back slightly. Except for that one time when your teammate had lectured the 8 year old you one too many times, so you walloped him one, right there, in the middle of the game. Someone had tested your limits.
 
You tried other activities to see what it was that you really liked to be a part of. Martial arts was it for a while, but you moved away. Drama school was another, as you wondered whether your creative side would lead you down another road. You tried things, and made friends along the way. You were further becoming the you, that is you.
 
In the background, you were changing. High school was a challenge for you, both scholastically and personally. On reflection, it wasn’t the right place for you, though we didn’t know about that until later on. Much later on. When your different outlook on life, was voiced to you as not being God’s way, you had to listen to it, and deal with the opinions of others. If only we had known back then. Yet, you were too courageous to reach out, for it was your independent streak that took hold, and left you to deal with it, in your own way, in your own time.
 
Today, you’ve flown the nest. First of all, not far from home, but far enough to only see you weekly, rather than daily. It was a difficult adjustment, as it felt like you couldn’t wait to get away. Yet, now, we know it was your excitement for the future, rather than a desire to escape the past, that drove your intentions.
 
Then last year, you moved further away. Much further away. You and your life partner made choices about where you wanted to build a life, and being near to us was not in the equation. Not that that was the intention, more of where you felt you could both afford to build a life, and a lifestyle, for yourselves, that best reflected who you are, both individually and as a couple.
 
Inside a quarter of a century, you’ve entered our lives, we’ve raised you, and, hopefully, given you the skills, the grounding and the unconditional love to go on and build your own life, just like we did for ourselves, all those years ago. The little, insignificant daily interactions are no longer, and instead, it’s seemingly on far fewer occasions, that we see you, and are able to spend time with you.
 
It’s a big adjustment for us, much bigger than I anticipated. In some ways, I don’t know if I’ll get used to it. That makes the times that we spend together, today, all the more precious.

This Week’s Tip

“The next time you think you need to put in some extra hours in the business,
think about what you’re giving up,
and what the true value of that is, to you, and to your family.”