Now that I’m older I wonder what it must have been like when he went to prison.

I used to play with his brother but I haven’t seen him in years. One year they ganged up on us and stole our Halloween candy….at the end of the night. What kind of kids (I wondered at the time) would lounge about all night while we were out working door to door for FREE candy? Not only the candy, but our pillow cases too! What can I say, we were poor.

Then I heard he was in prison for attempted murder! Can’t imagine what that would be like. New faces and people sizing you up. Talk about a rough first day at school. Can you say MOMMA!?

Here are five things I learned while reflecting on my childhood.

1.The dog was always in the pup. Just waiting to grow up. My Dad brought a puppy home one day and although he was only eight weeks old, he was twice the size of our mongrel Beagle puppies. He also turned out to be twice the dog. But all of the traits were there to begin with, they only blossomed as he got older. He was always a cool puppy, confident, at ease, royal and he was all of those things as a dog.
2. If you want to know your future, just look what’s in your hand. As I grew older, I often wondered why people did the things they did. My grandmother said that even after her death, she still wondered why my grandfather did some of the things he did. You may not know why now, but if you live to be as old as Solomon, you will. Not all at once, but gradually. Like the dawning of the sun, many mysteries will be revealed. They don’t call them the golden years for nothing!
3. The things you don’t like when you’re younger often turn out to be the things you love. Why else would an Olympian train for four years just for a few moments in the limelight? Hard work, patience, perseverance….they all have their rewards. The most expensive thing you can pay is attention! Ditch the distractions and focus on the details. They’re a rare commodity and so is the ability attend to them. Label the key. Read the memo. Rather than asking what it says, determine what it means. You’ll be rewarded nicely.
4. You’ll love the things you love even more so! The old vet used to pull up to the milk house at the farm and it was fun just watching him lather up and get all of his instruments ready. I can still smell his mysterious potions and envision the small bottles of Oxytocin. Even all these years later, nothing takes me back down memory lane like a good dose of country perfume. They were wonderful days, magical days. It was good to be alive and even more so now!
5. Never forget your friends. Billy. Mike. Mark. Johns, Bryan, Jamie (died in a fire!). Marshall. Many are long gone now, but never forgotten and yet only some of my comrades. You’ll never see their names in light, but they will withstand the annals of time. They scraped their knees with me and cried with me and laughed and I am all the richer for them. Some of my greatest treasures will always be the people I love.

I still don’t know where P is, but I wonder. Despite his faults, I really believe he was just a young, mad kid whose Dad went away and never came back. And though he did something he shouldn’t have, I still miss him even thought he beat me up and stole all my candy. Even as I lay here now in bed typing these words I wonder where he is tonight. i wonder if where ever he is he has someone to call friend. And so I’ve decided this post is for P. Wherever you are tonight….if you’re still alive. I love you and I wish I had some more candy so that you could steal it. Because if you really needed it that bad, I’m glad you took it from me.