You Grew Up In The Blink Of An Eye

I look at you. I still keep that sweetness in my gaze, like when I first looked at you. I am amazed at the undeniable and insurmountable effects of the passage of time. I smile at seeing you now, in the present, but above all at remembering your past. For me, my son, you have grown in the blink of an eye.

I wonder when it all happened, so quickly that I didn’t realize it. The best memories of my life come to mind like a continuous stream. Each anecdote clouds my vision a little more. Whether success or failure, they manage to bring out the sparkle of my eyes that are still – and forever – in love.

I go back to look at you. That future for which I have fought so much seems to be consuming itself. But there is still a lot left. It is that, without a shadow of a doubt, you have grown up. You have changed in every sense. We have grown, we have changed. Satisfaction and pride come to my chest like fleeting stars beating at a thousand per hour.

All that was left behind when you grew up

“Enjoy it, time goes flying by, children grow up very quickly”, they repeated to me almost every day. With painful insistence. Even so I couldn’t believe them, I refused to believe them or just didn’t take them seriously. Yet, without a doubt, the prophecy has come true: you have grown in the blink of an eye.

But I am fortunate, gratifying, to have enjoyed your sweet childhood to the fullest. It’s just that, the more time passed, the more I clung to your sweetness and your innocence. I fed on the magic of your eyes, of your imagination.

What a way to take advantage of the time! I took everything I could from you, since I had you in my arms all day, every day. Always close to me. You watched, fascinated, as I fed you. I filled you with hugs and kisses. I watched with an angel appeared in my house every time you slept.

It seemed to me that the minutes lasted an eternity, as if time remained frozen for you and me. Each of our days seemed to last forever. I felt that time could never fly by your side, in our idyllic dream life. Time seemed to stop and look at the perfection of such pure and unconditional love.

I thought and became more and more convinced that surely time could not pass by flying. I believed that this wonderful moment could be eternal, immortal, inexhaustible. What I have never considered is that, in reality, no clock could have marked the passage of time as you do.

When I woke up, my love, you grew in the blink of an eye!

Yes, I was wrong. Simply,  when I woke up after one of those restless nights, everything around me had changed. You no longer asked to come in your arms, but you asked for freedom. You had exchanged the bottle for the set of dishes you shared with us. You ran, reckless, on all sides, You had abandoned the cries for the first words.

I opened my eyes again the other day. I saw you enter high school for the first time. You managed to replace diapers with underwear. You were able to relate without problems with new friends who came into your life. You knew how to choose clothes and put them on yourself.

And it happened that, without a doubt, you have grown in the blink of an eye, you have become physically large and immense of heart. The days followed one another running faster and faster. And with greater insistence they showed me what you have become. I keep looking at you and I see you beautiful, strong, brave and noble.

My eternal child, grown up with affection, in my arms and with a lot of love. Confident, independent and, above all, happy. Yet already great, adult. If I were to tell you anything at this very moment, my son, I would just tell you to enjoy every moment. To enjoy the present, every moment, as if it were the last. Because certainly time passes by, believe me.

I look at you together with your wife, waiting for the fruit of your love. I wish with all the strength that is in my heart that you live intensely every second of this unique experience. Always take it in your arms because it will grow sooner than you think. Sleep hugging him, because then the day will come when he will want to sleep alone.

Kiss him often, kiss him whenever possible. Because, in the end, you will be able to do no greater act of love than to detach yourself from him, once the years have passed. Ironic but true. Sooner or later, when it grows up, you will have to let it fly. Trust your heart and these wise words that come from the bottom of my heart.