Don't Blink...indeed.

Today I walked the halls of my local high school. I was there to help a friend with something, and when my job was complete, my mother, who is here visiting, and I roamed the halls looking at the new, fascinating technology that we never had in school and the seemingly college-like gym. But as I roamed the halls, something much deeper and unexpected was taking place. As I looked at the kids, I saw the faces of those I graduated with in a small town in Kentucky in 1990. I noticed the ones who are probably cheerleaders. I noticed the jocks. I also noticed the ones who are probably less popular, and I wish I could have pulled them aside and told them not to worry, that popularity means nothing once you graduate and down the road you will realize it didn't really matter in high school either. Bill Gates wasn't popular.. enough said.
But while roaming around the high school, I have never been more aware that I am a 40-ish-year-old grown woman with two boys who are growing so fast that it literally made my heart ache. I could see my sons' faces on the faces of these giant high school boys. And they were seriously giants. There were moments I couldn't tell which were students and which might be young teachers.
Aren't the moms of these big students just sobbing thinking about how just yesterday these giants were throwing tantrums in their strollers at Target? Do they realize that soon these kids will be away at college and there will be nights they have no idea what their children are doing or even where they are?!?! Do they worry that they will move far away and that their arms will ache to hold that child for just a moment? I don't know exactly what happened to me in those halls today, but it was significant. The feeling stayed with me throughout the day.
Have you ever looked at your child and for just a moment you think you know what he or she will look like as a high school senior and it's beautiful and gut-wrenching all at the same time?
Not long after being at the high school, I watched my 3rd-grader participate in a fundraiser at his school. When I heard their precious voices sing the National Anthem, tears came to my eyes yet again.
That time...the time from when they are running laps in elementary school to when they are those giants roaming the wide halls of high school...how fast do they go? There isn't one parent who won't say it's in the blink of an eye. Of course it is. Because it seems like now is just a blink from when the doctor first handed them to me.
After today, I think if I were mysteriously summoned by the White House to write a super important document to promote world peace, I would toss it aside if my child wanted to eat ice cream and just talk.
Today was big. Today was REAL.
Some days life is just too raw. But if those days serve as a wake up call, forcing us to focus on all the things we should be focused on, then we should surely welcome them and absorb them whenever they may come. And be very thankful for them.