Children Growing Up Too Quickly

[p.falk]

My son is 13 and we're getting ready to pick the high school he will be attending.

Just a few days ago I was looking for something in his bedroom and I came across this book I had purchased for him when he was about 4 years old. It was one of those father/son woodwork project books.

On the cover was a little boy who looked to be plucked right out of the 1930s, looking like a Little Rascal cast member... running towards the camera while holding the string of some kite you assume he must have made with his dad.

At the time of purchase I remember thinking Liam's a few years younger than this cover-bound kid and hoped the projects wouldn't be too over his head to work on. But there was still that excitement of doing these projects with him.

I put that book on his shelf way back when (2016, 2017) and forgot about it. It got pushed in with the other books and became a bit of memory time capsule.

And so... I just recently came across it. Eight or 9 years for an adult isn't all that much of a big deal, but... that does a number on a child of 4 years. Being prone to wistful reflections, melancholy, and sentiment - all of those currents started to churn within my depths. But it's such an uncanny feeling. At one moment I look at that book and my mind just falls back all those years with the reflexive "oh, we had better start doing some of these"... to be quickly pulled to the present with another "oh" of realization that he's no longer a little boy.

Who knows - maybe I'll force him to work on a few of the projects anyway.

[Highlander]

I appreciate ... and share ... the sentiment.