All things must pass

This is the last day that my eldest daughter will be living with us - she moves tomorrow. I remember when she was little I used to joke about putting the boots to her the second she turned eighteen. That seems like a very long time ago now, but in a peculiar way, it also seems like just yesterday. She was the little girl I popped up onto my shoulders all the time.

We lived downtown, and back then we did not own a car. There really was no need, since everything was well within reach by car, bike, or bus. We walked most everywhere, and as soon as we set out, my little girl would reach out with her hands shaped like lobster pincers, opening and closing her fingers. This was her, "I want up" gesture. And she went everywhere about like this. She just belonged up there, and I could not imagine a time when I didn't have my pal up there.

When you have someone leaning on your head everywhere you walk, you talk to them - about anything and everything. Why the sky is blue, what happens when we die, what makes cars go, why people take the bus, who made the buildings, and how airplanes work. Sometimes you just talk about silly things that make no sense either in hindsight or even at the time.

Today, there is no way I could hoist that pregnant lady onto my shoulders. And in twenty six hours, the fledgling flies. She has her own nest to make, and soon a young one of her own to care for. She will talk to her baby, and care for her, and someday hoist her up on her shoulders, and if I am lucky, tell her about how Grampa used to do that, too.

All things must pass. But in my memories, they do not change. She is forever in my memories the three foot red haired elf that lives on my shoulders, telling me to walk into that tree in the park. :-(