I'm going to post words today instead of images... hopefully with my words, I'll leave you with an image.  I don't think I'm very good with my words and I believe that photography is the way I'm able to communicate best but here it goes.  

Middle school soccer tryouts are next week; so for the past couple of weeks my soon to be middle schooler and I have been going up to the high school track to try to get our mile under 7 minutes. Do you know how hard that is for an almost 40 year old???   (FYI... I can run farther than her but she can kick my you know what @ the end.... just in case you were wondering)   ughhhh.....   well this morning while running with my daughter we saw a bunch of other girls her age practicing soccer.   I so wanted her to be "part of the group" and knew she had to be the one to ask to join them.  She's not the most assertive of girls.  So the whole time I was texting my husband letting him know how scared I was for her to have to try out (I'm sooo not competitive) and how scared I was that those girls might say no she couldn't join their informal practice group.  I watched as she ran down down the hill to see if she could join.  During this time, I'm still "pretending" to get my mile under 7 minutes but continuing to watch as she ran to the group.  Even though my little girl is growing up and going to be my first middle schooler I have not felt like I wore my heart on my sleeve more than I did today.  The pain of possibly being rejected is big.... but I never realized it's even bigger when your baby might be rejected.  Ughhhhh.  I texted my dh that I felt like the mother of a lion cub ready to pounce at any time.  Needless to say, she not only was invited to play with them but she told me to get lost and not watch.... :)   And, we'll be going back Monday.  Today is a good day.

CHILDREN

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bow from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and 

He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

From THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran, 1883-1931