slow like molasses

In the photograph below, which I love, Calvin is already two or three months old, maybe older, having not come home from the hospital until seven weeks after his birth, which was six weeks early. Tomorrow my boy turns eleven and I can't say—like most parents do—that the time has gone by quickly. But that's okay. Perhaps, in some very strange and upside down way, the oft monotonous raising of Calvin can work as a perk: it forces me to live in the moment and to be ever mindful. Life in general tends to feel as though it is fleeting. Calvin, and these long Maine winters, help keep it slow like molasses, and for that I am grateful.

Happy birthday, Baby. Keep on truckin'.

photo by Michael Kolster