Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

A story of life in the Fowler house. When I was growing up, my parents would put a cradle by the fireplace at the beginning of Advent. ( Advent being the first season of the Catholic church year, and encompassing approximately the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas).  It's a time for preparation and joyful anticipation, which is pretty similar to the secular Christmas season but maybe with a more altruistic tone.  But I digress, back to the cradle. The cradle was a tangible, kid-relatable reminder that what we were celebrating is the event of the birth of Christ.  That is HIS cradle.  And my parents, in their infinite wisdom, would have us fill up the cradle with "straw" so he would have a nice bed to lay in on Christmas Eve.  (The straw was actually strips of newspaper.)  In order to put a straw in the cradle, you had to do a good deed for someone.  To facilitate this, we would draw names from a hat each Sunday, and you were assigned one person to be...

I will miss the days of tree forts and snow days, with their wild abandon and short tempers.  The small cocoon of backyards and carseats. I will miss the days of schoolyards and ringing bells, with their tidy jumpers and studious earnestness, intently watching the unfolding of big new world. I will miss the highschool bliss of endless car rides and music and fast friends.  So confident in our place at the center of the universe, fervently building a staircase to some unknowable future. I will miss the days of semesters and exams, of manic parties and the first blush of freedom.  Of up all night conversations and epic heartbreaks.  The days of passion. I will miss the true freedom of apartments and paychecks.  Realizing you're not the center of the universe and being liberated from that weight, only to assume the crushing weight of Possibility. I will miss the unexpected blossom of Possibility in two rings, tiny hands, first words, and shaky steps....