A Year Ago at Big Bend

These photos are from the Big Bend trip we took last May. I sure was hoping we could go back this year, but it didn't work out for us. I love camping with Bowie. He has so much to explore, so much freedom, so many new experiences and through him we experience it anew again. What a gift our children are; they give us the chance to return to what we've loved since our childhoods and they show us new things to love as adults. Of course we are getting the heat here awfully early and we just won't camp in 100 degrees weather, but we are considering renting a pop up to help us get out again soon. I just can't wait until fall. My soul will shrivel up if I can't camp until then.

Well, a year ago Bowie wasn't walking yet. He was signing plenty but had just a handful of words. Now he runs, jumps, balances one-footed on his scooter, he sings and sings and sings, he has hundreds if not a thousand words. I am crying here, full of pride for him and his accomplishments and so shocked and sad that a year has gone by so quickly. I've been here every day of his life, full of wonder at him in all his stages of growth. He'll be a big boy, a teenager, a man before I know it. Why is that so sad to me? I guess because I know that each of those stages will mean that I have to let go of him a bit more, that I will be a little less part of him. But he will NEVER be a little less part of me. He came from me and I am imprinted with a world of love for him, body and soul.

Thank goodness he still calls himself my "little bird" and crawls into my "nest". I hope he will let us be affectionate for a lot longer.