Dear Future

 A Lovely Place To Be

 Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now. - Anonymous

In 2039. I am 27.

Such is the title on the last panel of First Granddaughter's mini-autobiographical  pictograph.

A cartoonish girl wearing a purple shift dress that features a shine bright design on its front is winking, looking back, saying, Almost done. An open door with a view of a sunshiny day beckons on the far right.

It's my favorite page on the treasure album that I'd recently put together.

There's confidence in this girl, on her final tween year, no longer a little child, but not quite a teenager.

Her stance is certain, as she seems to assert, My day, my way. I'm looking to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life.

It is going to be her happy place - and I'd very much like to be there with her.

For right now, I'm not blinking because I know she's growing up too fast.

So I say, Keep growing and glowing. I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck whether at 12 or 27!

For in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.

It's the life in your years.