Packing Is Such Sweet Sorrow

I have to admit, a sick, twisted part of me likes to move. It's not the moving that I really like, but the elimination of excess. I just got rid of all our expired medication, and let me tell you, there was a lot and it was a great feeling to dump it.

In the midst of all this elimination catharsis I found a little pile of rocks. At first I wondered why I had saved them, and then it came to me. For a few weeks last year every time Jack would go outside to do something with Steve and Max, he would always bring me a rock. He would run through the front door and call for me, and then announce "Mommy, I got you something!" I would ask what, and he would hand over one of these stones as if he were giving me the Hope Diamond. It was a beautiful thing, so I kept each of those stones to remind me how it feels to have someone think you are the most important person in the world.

I thought for about a second about tossing them with all that expired cough syrup, but instead I tucked them in a box with my other keepers.

Some things never expire.