The Simplest Thing

Tonight, as I walked the dogs around a park we’ve lived near for 20 years, I watched a family playing basketball on a parking lot court I painted the lines on so Austin and I could play real games against each other and watched parents teach their daughter soccer where there used to be a backstop that I taught Taylor to pitch and catch and hit from. I watched toddlers romp where I coached football teams and Mary and the kids and grandparents and I threw the frisbee and baseball and football under the most beautiful sunsets in the world and everything was perfect. And I would stop and, with outstretched arms and face to the sky, exclaim “How awesome is this! Look around and take it all in! You’ll cherish this for the rest of your life.” And as I looked up to the stars, myriad in a moonless sky, it was I, with two far-too-busy-to-ever-go-back college students, who cherish those memories. But it’s all so natural that it doesn’t hurt. Sometimes.

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