Dotted pattern

These are some firsts that I did not see because you were little and did not know me.

Your first toothless smile, that ear-to-ear grin, the first sobs of despair, and the startling feeling of dread.


Your mother's tender embrace, your first blushing kiss, and a smack across his face came before your first skinned knee.

Your first sprint across the grass in the warm summer light, the first time you were praised for a job well done.


I promise to keep this commitment because there are many things that I did not notice.

We'll help them feel less hopeless when they cry by remembering our boy's toothless smiles.


They will run into our arms when they fall off their bikes and scrape their knees, and we will love and squeeze them.

Together, we'll support them on their life's path and we'll cry with them if they ever experience conflict.


We'll impart life lessons to them and serve as their mentors; one day, they might even wink at us as they kiss their brides.

We'll watch our grandchildren play while relaxing in the rockers on our front porch.


Then unexpectedly, we'll make a quick glimpse at one another, but our eyes will speak without words.

"Despite not knowing one another when we were young, our lives have melded together like dot-to-dots.


The pencil of life has linked our dots, and although our pasts were formerly separate and our memories were not connected, we are now inseparable."