my 17 year old son has gone with 3 friends to backpack around germany. while there they will visit friends and 2 of the boys have family there. we have been talking about this trip for well over a month and somehow in my mind the departure day was far, far off in the future. but here it is. i let him go because i knew it would be an adventure and a challenge. having family and friends there sort of lessened the risk of the adventure and challenge. alternately i feel like a crazy woman or a really cool mom. after all, he is my youngest, my baby. every time my daughter and now my middle son came home from college i was amazed at how physically different they looked to me. like their inner changes were manifest on their faces, in their stance and in the curve of their smiles. i am sure now, my youngest, will come back a man, to sound like a cliche. it is the bittersweetness of being a parent, yes? this letting them go. wouldn't have it any other way.
and here's some new work, kind of appropriate for this post. i am fascinated, maybe a little obsessed, with how we navigate and travel through life. this piece is called currents.
6 comments:
What a wonderful, heartfelt post about "letting go".
Love your new piece, Lisa.
it's the only thing on my mind right now. this is going to be a long month - eventually i'll be able to fall asleep at night out of sheer exhaustion right? thanks for reading!
It's ok, mom. You've raised him to this point, and he wouldn't go if he weren't ready!
Ha! you are absolutely right! thanks for stopping by.
Hi Lisa, I know that you will be missing him every single minute he's away . . . it's hard being a mom and letting them leave the nest, even for a short time. I heard this said once, "that the best parents are the parents that raise their children in such a way, that the child learns to be independent". I believe that is very true, and this is a step towards that. We all want our children to grow into strong independent adults. It can be very hard on the heart, when my daughter left for college, I thought I was ready. I was even looking forward to not sharing the bathroom. Then the day she left and I watched her car turn the corner, I started to cry . . . my poor husband was hugging me and drying my tears for three months. It's much harder on the Moms.
Thank you for the lovely comment about my journal post, what a lovely thing to say, Connie :)
thanks for the encouraging words! loved the part in your journal post when you asked yourself how you'd want to be remembered by your family. admire your ability to see what's important. thanks for stopping by :)
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