Reposting from my old multiply blog after I (panicked today when I) realized I’ll turn 37 this year. This happened three decades ago but it feels like only yesterday. Noah turned 7 recently and I do wonder if / when he’ll have a moment like this.

Visual from 7art Studio. Now, cue Nick Drake's Time Has Told Me for maximum effect!

I’ll always remember waking up the day I turned seven. It’s one of those rare, lucid moments that stay with you. It was a cool December morning in 1982 and the sun was shining just bright enough through the window so you could see dust floating serenely in its rays. When I was a kid, I liked to stare at the sun and then play with the residual images the glare would create when I shut my eyes. It must have been a Saturday because I stayed in bed just toying with the radiance in my mind and thinking. I can still hear the birds outside my window.

In bed on my 7th birthday, I remember the peculiar calm as I mused if this is how it felt to grow older. It was as if I could feel time wash over me, aging me. How will I be when I grow up? Who will I be? What’s going to happen to me? I had so many questions, but I felt a reassuring warmth from the sunlight and the quiet that bathed the room.

I thank God for the memory of that moment which anchors me as I ask those same questions — and more — every single day. Time is slow to reveal the answers. So here I am. Still that seven year old kid, unsure and uncertain, but quietly aware as I wait for life to unfold its beautiful, unending possibilities.  

Noah was trying to drag me inside his classroom when I dropped him off at school this morning. “Come with me, daddy!” he kept saying over and over as he tugged on my arm. But I was going to be late for work so I had to break out of his grip to kiss him a quick goodbye. Then his principal came along and volunteered to bring him inside.

The moment I let go of his hand, I knew right away I let him down, but I didn’t know why. So I turned around, went to the window to wave and smile at him one more time.

Noah’s face lit up and excitedly motioned for his classmates to look. And then they all suddenly started waving and mouthing words I couldn’t hear through the glass. Even the ones who were usually too shy to say hello went nuts.

I still didn’t know why.

Until I got inside the car and I looked down at my shirt. Then I realized, they were saying hi to “Green Lantern”…

…and that my son just wanted to show off his super-hero.

Wait ’til “Superman” shows up next week!