The Commencing

He graduated! The teenager is officially done with high school. So proud. So relieved. So excited for him to live life beyond high school. (By the way, that's how little he was when he came into my life.)

It’s funny how you can look back on several entire years and think, "Wow, that went fast," when the reality at the time was that each day seemed never-ending.

Retrospectively, high school feels like a bit of a blip...like a few rough years outta 18 isn't so terrible (even though sometimes it was). Like I could be one of those contented elders who turns to the parent just entering the dark, scary tunnel and sagely pronounces, "This, too, shall pass." (Someone once said that to me and I almost cried.)

How I wish there was a way to shrink each individual event down to its actual size rather than letting it consume our purview...a graph that could have shown us that the leveling off point wasn't as far away as we thought.

There was a time when I thought we would lose him. He seemed so intent to jump off the bridge.

Now it feels like there was a well-hidden bungee cord and he’s bouncing back toward us. Our arms are outstretched, ready.