Once Upon a Time: A Letting Go

Once he was a boy who like to climb in log cabins and jump in haystacks.


Once he was a boy who liked to swing and run up slides at the playground.


Once he was a boy who played with Legos, hour after hour.



Once he was a boy who went barefoot in the sandbox in the spring, reveling in the feel of the cool sand and the end of winter, surrounded by little people who thought he was the greatest. And the bossiest.


Now he's my boy who is about to leave the nest, to head off to college 3 hours away. We had one last camping trip this past weekend, a familiar familial pattern of campfires, hikes, and marshmallows. We've done it dozens of times over the course of the past 17 years, but this one was extra sweet.

"What should I take with me?" he asks.
"Everything," I tell him. "Everything that you need every day."

What isn't packed in his suitcase will be packed in his heart, stored there as quiet memories of sand, swings, mountains. And us.

Linked up at Tuesdays Unwrapped on Chatting at the Sky