Time is the answer…

This thing all things devours–

birds, beasts, trees:

Gnaws iron, bites steel:

grinds hard stones to meal.

Slays king, ruins town,

and beats high mountain down!

So, this quote from The Hobbit, a soliloquy from gollum when he tested Bilbo in the cave, comes to mind on the day I send my child off to his first day in high school.

Time is the answer, since it doesn’t stop or wait.

It was just a few short moments ago that I got the word from my doctor (and a little test strip) that I was pregnant.

It was just a few short moments ago that I was in a panic because my water had broken many weeks too soon.

It was just a few short moments ago that I got a ticket for parking in a disabled space at Burger King on the day I was bringing my preemie home from the hospital (the ticket got dismissed, by the way).

It was just a few short moments ago that I found out my child had been categorized as Autistic.

It was just a few short moments ago that I was taking my son out of a kindergarten prep program because they couldn’t deal with the fact that he wasn’t potty trained yet.

It was just a few short moments ago that I said good-bye to him at the doors of his kindergarten school.

It was just a few short moments ago that I cried while sitting at a table of school administrators and staff, telling them that my son would no longer and never be a student in that particular district again, and that I would one day sit on the school board that governed his new school (and I did get a seat on that board).

It was just a few short moments ago that my boy entered junior high.

It was just over a month ago that he graduated from junior high.

And today he starts high school.

Wow.

~ by arobinsonneal on August 25, 2009.