Beginnings

Today is the first day of school for my kids.

Beginnings.

I originally thought of titling this post New Beginnings, but I got philosophical with myself and determined that all beginnings are new, because every beginning is a new opportunity for new experiences, even if the beginning itself may be the same as last year (school, for instance).  But a beginning of any kind is exciting - one has no idea what the end of the day will be like, even for the best planners among us, because life happens every second.  A traffic jam causes one to take an alternate route to work/school.  An offhand comment from someone causes one to think about something they weren't planning on originally...a flash sale convinces someone to finally make that purchase they were putting off for a while.

All of these things are beginnings, new little opportunities for new experiences, new thoughts, new chances.

The kids were welcomed to their new classrooms today - one had new teachers and classmates, one had a new classroom.  One was anxious, one was timid.  I'm confident that when I come home, I'll be bowled over by hearing all the stories of things they did today.  Both were fearful of today's beginnings, but I was excited for them.

It's a part of growing up, and fortunately for all of us, beginnings never stop, so we always have new chances.  It's comforting to know that there's always a new opportunity around the corner.  It's our choice how we approach these new opportunities and these beginnings, but thankfully they never give up on us.  My job is to role-model to my kids how to grab hold of these new beginnings and make them our own so that they too are excited.

But for today - I'll look back on their baby photos and just think about how much they've grown, how they've become these incredible little people and remember that, at the end of the day, what I hope will never change is how tight they hug me...