It started innocently enough..and like most rituals, I can’t put a date to it. She was a tiny kiddy then, by comparison. We played catching the flying kiss at home from time to time..I would blow her a kiss and she would run around the house trying to catch it. She would blow me one..and show fake horror and exclaim that it was stuck on the door , or had fallen on ground..or some such thing, and I would need to retrieve it and tuck it away carefully..She would respond with the brightest giggle and a twinkle in her eye.
I don’t know when, but we started exchanging flying kisses after she got on the school bus every morning. She would hold my hand at the school bus stop and her height, barely to my chest. She would run in to the bus, to her favorite seat : the 2nd last row corner window seat, and she would turn around and look at me and as the bus started to leave..I would blow her a kiss. She would catch it and then she would blow me one and I would catch it. She will throw me her brightest smile.
Slowly the years have rolled by..she has grown taller, bigger, wiser. She is almost my height now and she says big things ., and writes about success and patience, and pain, and awkwardness..Words too wise for a soon to be 13 year old. Is her childhood all gone I wonder.. is she all adult now ? But then our childhood ritual of blowing kisses remains - for now..Yesterday, for the first time in a very very long time, she was distracted in the bus..She turned back well after it had left and I don’t know if my kiss reached her or got stuck on the bus somewhere...and it felt strange. I know the tables are turning when I caught myself telling her today ‘Remember to see here today’. I blew her that kiss and she blew one back. ‘She is my baby still’ my heart danced..’
How much longer...Time will tell
I don’t know when, but we started exchanging flying kisses after she got on the school bus every morning. She would hold my hand at the school bus stop and her height, barely to my chest. She would run in to the bus, to her favorite seat : the 2nd last row corner window seat, and she would turn around and look at me and as the bus started to leave..I would blow her a kiss. She would catch it and then she would blow me one and I would catch it. She will throw me her brightest smile.
Slowly the years have rolled by..she has grown taller, bigger, wiser. She is almost my height now and she says big things ., and writes about success and patience, and pain, and awkwardness..Words too wise for a soon to be 13 year old. Is her childhood all gone I wonder.. is she all adult now ? But then our childhood ritual of blowing kisses remains - for now..Yesterday, for the first time in a very very long time, she was distracted in the bus..She turned back well after it had left and I don’t know if my kiss reached her or got stuck on the bus somewhere...and it felt strange. I know the tables are turning when I caught myself telling her today ‘Remember to see here today’. I blew her that kiss and she blew one back. ‘She is my baby still’ my heart danced..’
How much longer...Time will tell
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