Growing Up Before My Eyes...

We parked about a mile away from our fireworks display. After years of fighting traffic and road rage in an effort to get home from our all-American-hometown-Fourth-of-July-celebration, we opted for a long walk with our kids to the blanketed baseball field and the same walk back again once the display concluded. I think it was a good plan. We like to walk, got home at the same time as we would have had we been stuck in parking lot traffic, and I had time to chat with my kids. Win/win.

Noah came to walk with me when I offered to carry the chair he had been lugging to and from. I took the chair, he took my hand. A good trade. He is growing up, my boy, and if he will still hold my hand, I am smart enough, nostalgic enough, to treasure this moment and not let it pass without notice. We took up the back and Josiah soon joined us and we watched Mark and Benjamin forge our path through winding neighborhoods and condo associations. Elizabeth pulled into the middle, skipping happily from the group out front to those in the rear and back again. Noah chatted a bit about planets and wonderment and stars and laws. He has always been a thinker though he is just now beginning to freely share some of those most privileged ponderings. He talked about creation some and then questioned why some people set off fireworks in their yards... this being illegal in Illinois. He talked about how he wants to be good, wants to obey, and really doesn't understand why everyone doesn't feel the same. I smiled to myself and wondered how long he will hang on to this desire... and hoped against hope that he would hold on to it forever.

In his stream of conscious flow, he wondered aloud if it was now 9:00 PM. I said, "No, honey, it is after 10."

"How LONG was that fireworks display then, Momma?"

"I would guess about half an hour..." I replied.

"Wow," Noah sighed, "seemed like about 5 minutes. Mom, my life is zooming by. It's going way too fast!"

I squeezed his hand and took a breath and tried to store this moment up forever in my mind.

"It sure is, buddy. It sure is going way too fast."