waiting

In my garage, there is usually a pile of boxes.  They are waiting to be burned or taken to the garbage.  But.,this is what may greet you in my garage this past week.  Don't tell anyone..shhhhh.... it is just the way it came home from Ralph Wilson stadium last week.  Exactly the way he tied it up together to board the bus after playing his last football game as a Clymer Pirate.  The rest of the smelly stuff got deposited in the laundry room, in front of the washer, as is the tradition here.  Mom will wash it, just leave it all in front of the washer.  That brought tears to my eyes as the last wash of the uniform, #63,for Dan.  And I wondered then what happened to the shirt.  I happened across it later...after that load was washed.  A different load than usual, because there is no dirt at RWS, just turf.  No soaking those football pants for a day or three in Oxyclean.  No extra scrubbing of the knees...no dirt and grass, just memories....Memories of my 18yr old kid, who passed the test to play JV as an 8th grader. but didn't pass the test to move up to varsity for playoffs that year....the big kid who played Varsity for the next 4 years,....the one who knocked you on your can, then bent over to help you up and pat you on the back...when the coach offered the 9th graders who hadn't played Varsity the chance to practice with the varsity and be on the field for the BIG GAME, our friend, Adam Honey was the only one of the 4 who chose to do it.  Adam is a great kid, but 120 pounds soaking wet it probably a stretch.  During those practices, Dan was known to pick him up, set him out of the way and say, "Stay here Honey, you'll be safe!" 
I had flashbacks this week of my last senior season.  Andrea Sue....uniforms hung around here way longer than they had before.  I caught a little writing of hers after she saw Dan's shirt.  She said it still had the sweat, the blood and the tears of the year, the years, of playing together.  Like him, she was in no hurry to wash it out; to wash away those memories...she wanted to hold those moments of playing as long as she could.  Perhaps that is why, 3 years into college, the chalkboard wall in her bedroom still has the messages she wrote her senior year...before basketball...before they brought home the state championship...when they were making their last memories together as friends and as a team of Clymer Pirates...before they graduated and everything changed so much...

 We still play for the little girl and the little boy with the big dreams.... let us never stop doing that...

We understand that so much changes, and we wait for those visits home from college, and a chance to, maybe, just for a little bit, remember what was, and share what we hope to be, and together we grow into a whole different relationship. 
So today, if a child looks at you, look back a little longer and pack that memory away.  In a blink, it will be fast forward.... Live and love for today.  Embrace life together.