Looking back at life is like reviewing a multi-dimensional series of chapters organized by changes in location, career, and perhaps most vividly, family.

One chapter in my own life, as organized by family changes, has been open for nearly twenty two years: having children at home.

I’ve loved this chapter so much. Being part of the development of a new human is fulfilling beyond description. It’s taught me so much about not just about being a parent, but about myself, my own parents, a new type of selfless love, and the power of nature over nurture.

I’m quite pensive and admittedly nostalgic about this chapter as mine is coming to a close after this summer. Both of our boys will officially be out of the nest in the next few months and I dare say that closing this chapter will be a difficult milestone to process. It’s true that there’s so much gratification in seeing them begin to fly on their own; but I will absolutely miss everything it took to get to this point.

Some of you have already written this chapter for yourselves, so you already knew all of this — to you, I say, “congratulations and I will do my best to learn from you on what chapters thereafter look like”. Some of you are in the midst of writing this chapter — to you, I say, “may you not be too busy to appreciate it in the moment”. And others yet may not have had the opportunity to write this particular chapter but have instead created another fulfilling experience to replace it.

I’m going to make the most of the remaining months but, more importantly, I’m going to be even more deliberate about the makeup of the next family chapter.