Poopy Diapers....Gone with the Wind

As a new parent, when you are the the midst of poopy diapers and spit-up you think they are going to be the hardest things. I can tell you from experience.....they don't even scratch the surface.

As your children get bigger the problems and situations you are faced with as a parent get bigger. You can no longer give your kids time-out in the naughty chair. They now have differing opinions that make sense and contain reason and are in need of discussion and compromise. When they are little there is rarely discussion and compromise. No, typically, means No.

Kyle is a Junior this year in High School. Kyle is a very bright, intelligent, goal-oriented and level headed, fine young man. Kyle's wheels are always turning. Have been since he was a little baby. He has never liked to sleep........afraid he is going to miss something going on around him or that some wonderful opportunity is about to present itself to him and he will miss it because his eyes are closed.

Kyle has had the desire to go into some type of military service and training since he was 3 years old. He has watched his grades, performed community service, participated in school activities and government activities his entire life all with the perfect qualifications, entrance exams and interviews in his future in mind.

His future is now here.

He is interviewing this week to be selected into a military program where he will learn skills necessary for a position in Homeland Security and quite possibly begin bootcamp this summer. He would attend many college courses next year in addition to his senior year in high school and then begin college for a six-year degree at the University of Minnesota immediately following high school.

He is only 16. How can this be happening so soon? Where does the time go?

I admire and love his energy and drive and the fact that he has such a clear plan, but there are so many factors and different things to take into consideration and it makes my head spin and my heart ache a bit.

This weekend I was longing for the simple days of poopy diapers and spit-up. Longing to hang on to the past and stop time from moving forward into the future.

We watched Gone with the Wind last night with all the kids.

In the midst of our kids growing and making plans for their lives and how everything is changing around us, a piece of the words that scroll down the screen at the beginning of the movie keep playing in my head:

"Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair of Master and of Slave... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, A civilization gone with the wind.”

A way of life....their way of life..... disappearing right before their very eyes.

I can relate.

We may not have Knights and their Ladies Fair or Masters and Slaves, but our world....our own little world, that I have known for nearly as long as I can remember, and love dearly, is too changing and becoming no more than a dream remembered.

Oh, how important it is to live each day in our lives remembering the moment we are in.......good, bad, comfortable or uncomfortable......is fleeting.............and tomorrow will be gone with the wind.