This Moment::March 2

I love the idea behind SouleMama's "this moment", but I rarely have a picture ready. I don't take pictures every day (shame on me!) and I share each picture as it comes in. I'm not much of a saver.

So today, maybe I'll do a verbal "this moment" instead of a picture "this moment".

If I could pick a moment to savor and remember, it would be:

The moment that I dropped off Jared for his first day working at the greenhouse. Lots of thoughts were going through my head all at once, and it struck me right then that my boy had turned into a man. He was off at a job that only grown-ups are hired for and getting a grown-up's wage. He nearly makes as much as Josh, whom I've thought of as a grown-up for a few years. Why, he could even move out, or get married (which he won't, because he is planning on going on a mission, but still...), or buy a car with the wages that he'll be making.

My eyes were moist, my heart was full, and at the same time I was having melancholy feelings, I was having such an optimism for his future. I was proud of the man he had grown up to be, and proud of myself for giving him opportunities to learn how to work hard, especially at gardening. He has been my helper in the garden every year, except last year, for the past 8 years. He has been my right hand man when it came to helping with the animals, too. And in the past 5 years, he has gone door to door every spring to ask people if he could mow their lawn for the summer, and for the last 2 summers he has extended that to any kind of yard work. In fact, at our church, one man in the men's group stood up and told everyone that if they were looking for anyone to help with yard work, Jared was their man because he was such a hard worker.

All of those things whizzed through my mind in about a minute or less and I was left with a little sadness at the loss of my boy and gratitude for the man he'd become.

Yep, a picture is worth a thousand words. :)

Have a great day!