I wish I had all of Daniel’s 4,186 sleeps on video–I would shamelessly put them on a loop, in reverse order, and watch him get younger with each passing day.  As it is, D is off to astro camp to consider the perigee of the moon (one of six “super-moons” this year), stay up late, and generally be a kick-ass 11-year old while mom and dad contemplate how to slow down this whole thing called ‘growing up.’  You can’t see it (like the new moon) but it’s larger and closer than we all think.

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like when you’re older must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams.

Kid has mastered the slow-roll at age 11.  Can’t believe it…11.

Keep a bit of that swagger always.  Laugh at your dust, but don’t stare too long at your shadows.  Bodysurf–it’s one of the few things you can do your whole life.  Make sandwiches for your buddies and wave at pretty girls on the beach (one of them may end up being your beautiful wife).  Laugh at yourself and at others you meet in books.  Take time to be alone.  And, because I’m your Dad, “always watch a sunset, always smell the flowers, and always pet a nicey (good pets of all kinds).”  Oh, and “predictable is preventable”…remember that too–it’s a good one that I wished I would have learned a few decades earlier.  — Love, RST.