Memories to Have and to Hold

I sat in the church and took in the purplish blue hue that graced the back drop of the stage.  Last week I  had done the same in a different setting for a different couple. My weekends for the month of June have been a parade of celebrations and parties, coupled with congratulatory hugs and well wishes. We've had birthdays, sprinkled with holidays, showers and weddings, now all just memories tucked into a deep pocket of my heart where I lock up my treasures. The boys that once ran ruckus through my house, with tousled hair and bare feet, stood before family and friends promising... "To have and to hold until death do us part." A part of me wanted to object (because they used to give guest that option), but instead I sat and wondered.... "How did they grow up so fast?" You blink your eye and they're gone, moved on without you, living adult lives when in my heart I still see them as barefoot kids, or teenagers who are up to their eyeballs in mischief. They were and are a fun bunch and I couldn't be more proud than if I had given birth to each and every one of them.  The lives of these boys wove together into a practical sort of fabric where every thread crossed and recrossed through school, work and marriage, embroidering connections impossible to ignore and creating a tapestry of great beauty and endless worth.