The circle...

Every so often, it happens - and boy oh boy does it ever sting! I'm talking about life...when it hits you...

The children & I have a decent morning routine going: after breakfast we head out for a half hour walk, stop off at a nearby park, then make the trek back home. All of this is made easier thanks to my Graco tandem stroller. It's a place to store a backpack filled with treats & juice, hold my cellphone, some sweaters, wipes, and (of course)transport the wee ones.

Eliana & Massimo sit in their stroller, happy as can be, watching the world go by while snacking on goldfish crackers. As for me, I consider it one of the more pleasant forms of cardio, rarely giving much thought to the act of pushing my kiddies around...that is...until today.

We made our way toward the library, and in the distance I could see a woman pushing an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair. As we approached them, she shifted to the side in order to make room on the sidewalk. Once we were face to face, my daughter, ever the friendly chatterbox, bellowed out her morning greeting, "HELLO, I AM GOING TO THE PARK!". The gentleman, slightly hunched & with a soft,wrinkled smile said, "AREN'T YOU LUCKY!" She then asked him where he was off to... and he informed us that his daughter was taking him out for a stroll as well. His eyes scanned the scene & I'm almost certain that I saw a glimpse of nostalgia in his watery gaze.

That's when it happened: Life - it hit me in the face.

You see it, don't you? I'm pushing my children around in a stroller - and this gentleman is being pushed around in his "stroller" by his own child. This routine act of taking my children out for a walk - to the park - to the library - to a pond to feed the ducklings - it's part of a circle... Perhaps, one day, the roles will shift & we will have reached the other side of the circle, and they will be taking me out for a stroll - to the park - to the library - to the pond to feed the ducklings. Wow!

I can only hope that in the distant future, my babies have some memory of the stroll, that breezy spring morning in May, when I stopped to pick a stem of lilacs for my little girl & a maple leaf for my baby boy. And perhaps they will have a sense of the immeasurable amount of love I had in my heart for them at that very moment. Then, when I'm older, greyer, slightly hunched over with a soft, wrinkled smile, perhaps the memory of that May morning will entice them to head out for another stroll with me.