Missed....

Today a girl came to school late.  She wasn't the only late comer but the fact that she had a huge smile on her face was noteworthy.  Today she had her braces taken off.  Amidst her smile that seemed to span her entire face, ear to ear, she beamed.  Noteworthy?  I couldn't help but think that my boy missed out.  He missed out on the day he would get his braces removed.  He missed running his tongue over his teeth in remembrance wonder of how that had felt.  He missed eating sticky, gooey stuff without the worry of a broken wire.  He missed looking at himself in the mirror for way too long, checking himself out at every angle.  He missed just the plain happiness that comes with a day like that.

The things he missed come to mind often.  Football senior night.  The first rally of his senior year.  Seeing how far he could take a speech contest and so on and so forth.  The list could go on for a very long time. 

Part of the grieving process is writing down a list of the things lost by those left behind.  My list not only is comprised of my own losses but my thoughts always spill over to the losses of others.  Maybe that's not fair and I should stick to my own list but it happens.  Possibly when I think about what he missed, I am really thinking that I also missed out.

So I began to think about what he didn't miss.  Partial government shutdown, earthquakes, southern storms, Dodgers in the playoffs, sadness, the last days and momma gettin' older than dirt.