Always Remember Them Young
As an uber-music-nerd, there are a lot of moments in my life, that memories are triggered when I hear certain songs. And the catalogue in my mind is not only large, but diverse, when it comes to the genre of music.
I told my daughters that I would get better at accepting the fact that they have grown up. Our family impacted by divorce, I do not have the benefit of seeing my daughters every day as when I lived in the house with them. So, the days that I did not see them, either by visitation or by video chats, I would go through the thousands and thousands of files of photos I have taken of my daughters over the years. They have long gotten to the point of perfecting the “eye roll” when I ask for another picture. But as an adult child of divorce, I do not have many photos of my younger years, especially with either of my parents. The example that I have set for my daughters, these photos matter and will always help me to remember.
So, I am sitting in my car, stopped for a school bus stopped with its red lights blinking, loading what appeared to be elementary school age children. There was a gaggle of parents standing at the bus stop to make sure that their children were off and safe. Up until that moment, I did not have any other thought on my mind. And then… my Ipod began to play Thomas Rhett’s “Remember You Young.”
That is all it took. The time it takes to load the amount of kids onto a school bus, I got through half of the song. My mind had taken me back to the time pictured above, a time that I remember so well. With one away at college, and another soon to be, these memories will be all that I have. As I said, I have many of them to reflect on.
But this was not the only time in recent weeks that this flipped switch had occurred.
A friend and fellow Hodgkin’s survivor recently visited the “house of the mouse”, Disney with her young son. Like any doting parent, it took no time for her to share the beautiful and fun photos of the pure enjoyment that her son was getting to experience. Again, looking at the beaming photos of her son, I remembered what it was like for me, when I took my daughters, close to the same age, to Disney for the first time.
But I digress. I told my daughters that I would do all that I can, to let them grow up, and be grown ups. They each have an exciting pathway in life ahead of them. And hopefully many of the experiences they have had, their memories, will help them to be great parents someday as well. As they grown however, I will always remember them young.
Paul's Heart 