From new beginnings to growing older

It could happen any moment. But that was the same thing I said yesterday, and probably what I will say tomorrow. Tired of waiting, I decide to go running. Should I bring my phone? Nay, I have nowhere to put it and it would probably be useless. Why should it happen in this particular hour? The first thing I hear when I get back home is my phone beeping. A new voicemail message. With sweaty hands, I dial the number and hear my brother’s voice. “Congratulations, you just became an uncle.”

~Mark Maathuis, Capitol Hill

Forever under 21?

“I’ll have a glass of the Gewarztraminer,” I tell the waitress, as my husband, David, and I sit down for Thai. She looks at me askance. “ID?” she asks. I wince inside. Do I have that much of a baby face?

“A Heineken, please,” David adds. No request for ID.

He’s ten years my senior. We met at the office. He’s all I ever dreamed of and more.

He flashes his license at the waitress anyway. She smiles, noticing the gray on his temples. We chuckle. I hope this routine lasts for the next 50 years.

~ Grace Verhey, East Falls Church