The older I get, the more I feel like Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing as he zooms into hyperspace. The world seems to be turning at warp speed: childhood ambles along, young adulthood moves into third gear, then middle age starts to zip by in a turbocharged frenzy. 

So I’m trying to slow it down, especially when I’m with my kids. 

Some parents rejoice when their children leave home - Yay! Freedom! - but not me. Maybe because I’m single, I feel the loss of my college kid’s presence pretty deeply, even as I’m thrilled with her independence and emerging adulthood. My high school daughter is hardly ever home, between school and dance, and I’m acutely aware that she’ll be leaving in less than three years. Tomorrow. A second. A nano-second …

All this to say that when she accompanied me on my first of sixty adventures, to Lost River Gorge in Woodstock, New Hampshire, spending time with her felt sweet.