I recently spent time with a child who is very much like The Boy was back in The Time That Went Before. Not exactly the same, but similar enough for me to remember what it was like living that life, only this time I was powerless to do anything as the child already has an excellent sufficiency of parents, and I am not one of them.

It was incredibly hard to watch this family in crisis, and almost as hard to hold my tongue, which (for the most part) I did.

Afterwards, as I debriefed from the experience, The Boy overheard me talking. There was nothing in the content that was inappropriate for him to hear, so I continued.

At a natural pause in the conversation I was having he said “Is he like me? Like I was, back… whenever? When was it? 2 years ago? More?” I confirmed that yes, that child is much like he was and I told him how impressed I was that he was able to see that similarity, and seeing that makes it easier for us to see where we are today.

Internally it was like New Years Eve, Bastille Day, 4th of July and Chinese New Year fireworks all in one.

It is easy to look with adult eyes and see how far we have come. It is easy to look at where we are now and be happy with the outcome. It is a whole other thing for a teenager to look back at a time when he was an unrecognisable version of himself and see similarities with another child.