Time Keeps Marching On

     There has been a battle in our house with haircuts.  When Ryan was younger, I would take him to the barber and get a clipper cut, 8 & 6.  It seemed long enough to me, especially since I do a 3 & 1 clipper cut.  But it was something he didn't like.  The last haircut he had was sometime in the early summer.  As the weeks rolled on, he looked to be growing a mop.  It was just not a fight that I wanted to have to get it cut right now.  Imagine my surprise when he emailed me and said he would go to the barber today if I would transfer the money.  I made the transfer and asked for a picture when he was done.  This is what he sent me:

    I texted him back that it looked great.  As I was driving home from work, I forwarded the picture to my brother with the words "Boy went and got a haircut on his own".  Sitting at a stoplight, half way home, my mind started wandering to the fact that Ryan will be graduating high school in 19 months and moving on to the next phase of his life.  He is holding a 4.0 GPA and doing great in school.  He is driving, he has a job and is absolutely crushing it.  And as I sat at that light, thinking all of those thoughts I nearly had a breakdown.

    I thought of all the moments he and I have experienced since Theresa fell asleep in the Lord.  I thought of the end of the year school rock concerts he's participated in since moving to Phoenix and how I would start to get emotional thinking that one day soon it would be his last one, his graduation and how much it sucks that Theresa isn't going to be there to see the fruits of her well laid foundation.  

    I am 19 years into my Dad's dying, 6.5 years into Theresa's and a little more than 1 into my Mom's  and I still have these little moments with all three.  I can't even think about all the future moments:  high school graduation, first day of college, graduation from college, first job post-college, marriage (or priesthood!).  All I really know is I wish time would slow down a little bit, and perhaps we could get one more time for his Mom and Grandparents to see how good he's doing.

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