Member-only story
I Saw Your Three-Year-Old Self In You
For All The Fathers and Mothers Who Look Upon Their Children And Think That Time Moves “Too Slow”, or “Too Fast”
I saw your three-year-old self in you, seven-years-old, as you sat on the pavement concentrating on drawing with sidewalk chalk. I saw your younger self in you emerging from the bones in your face.
It was not any kind of deja vu, but standing at the window I say your chubby younger cheeks, as if peering back in time. Parenting is like that-blink and you miss it. Wish away the years, so long while you are in them, so short, looking back.
I remember waiting for you, in the days between “expecting”, and “parent”.
You were a peanut then. You were later 9 3/4 pounds, screaming in a diaper. You are my son, and I love you.
On this day, looking out the window, this was no apparition, no ghost, but I saw your younger face appear clearly in my mind’s eye. You didn’t know I shed a few tears, watching from the window. You were younger then…
