Maybe this is a stretch...

I was thinking while I was driving today about how in knitting yarn is potential. I know The Yarn Harlot has talked about this, most of us have yarn that we never really want to use because once it's knit, no matter how great the object is that we created, the yarn is no longer. The potential is gone. All the 100's of dreams we had it turning into are gone, left to just one. So I was thinking that this is a lot like life. I have one college age son now, one almost there too. The childhood potential is gone. The way we envisioned raising them, the things we saw ourselves doing with them are gone. I still have younger children, but what we have put into the first two is gone, can't be re-shaped. I must interject here that I couldn't be prouder of them. They have turned into men who know their own minds and will work out the details for themselves just like we did. I wouldn't change a thing in them right now, and love to see them carrying on in the world as we did at that age. There is still time to do different things with the younger boys if we really want to, but at this point we are old and tired. We can afford better for them for the most part. I have the benefit of knowing that we didn't ruin the first two, so we probably won't ruin the rest. I feel confident that if I died today they would all be able to be employed at the grocery store, at least. All of life is like this though. We all had chances when we were in our 20's to do things that would greatly impact the rest of our years. In fact, right now, in my 40's I have a different kind of potential to imprint the rest of my life. It never really ends. I'm still not going to knit up my saved coveted yarns though. I feel confident that one day in old age I will become infirmed and cannot drive myself to the yarn shop, and I need all this to keep me occupied then.