To My Kids On The First Day of School,

 Dear children,

As I send you off to another first day of school, I reflect (as all parents do when faced with such milestones) on the quicksilver movement of time.
Working from home has afforded me a summer season spent with my kids. Fireflies and fights, sticky fingers and sandy toes, road trips and movie nights; all have been crammed into the brief window of bliss we call summer vacation. Now with the inevitable cruel twist mother nature writes into every summer plot, fall has arrived. Books and bedtimes, homework and curfews, classrooms and crunchy leaves replace the freedom that can only be felt by the truly young and burden-less on a warm June night.

 You now face that universally and unforgiving bogey-man of life- the unknown. New classes, new teachers, a new school, a new routine, and new faces that have yet to reveal themselves as friend or foe. As you embark on this right of passage that marks off another year of your childhood, I encourage you to pause and feel this day for what it is; another step on the road to who you will eventually be. Each new school year will help shape you into a warrior that I will eventually release into the world. Lessons you learn today will follow you into adulthood, cherish every moment of this day, including those faint shivers of fear and apprehension, before our day-to-day routine wears the brassy newness down to the dull glow of ordinary. You are only given so many "first days," and as you walk away down the sidewalk, new shoes still shiny, backpack still bright and excitement still sharp, know that your mother secretly watches from behind the curtain, pride and loss welling her eyes for just a moment, before turning to reclaim her house, happy and sad at the same time as only a mother can be.....