Been there, done that. Twice now.
This learned opinion notwithstanding, may I offer a few words that have restored my perspective on more than one occasion through years of raising two fine, but very different young men?
A mother, perhaps more than anyone else, puts so much of herself into her children. They represent her life's work. And so, when they grow up, it can be difficult to let them go, to know when that work is truly finished, to be at peace with what she has done and allow her children to venture forth and make their own mistakes, fall down, pick themselves back up, do things she wouldn't do herself, repeat all the dumb things she did (and warned them about repeatedly). This helped me to remember that while as a parent you never stop caring, more likely than not (as it says in one of those other mass culture poems that contains more than a grain of truth) no doubt my little universe will continue to unfold exactly as it should, even without my expert guidance :p
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
...life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is strong and secure.
So as it says somewhere in the Bible, rejoice in a job well done knowing you have been a good and faithful
And congratulations!
No comments:
Post a Comment