Empty Nest

Ok, so I started this blog to help deal with some life changes that are about to happen. Selling our house was a part of that and quite frankly it has dominated everthing since my husband came home from Afghanistan. Now that it is behind us and I have some free time to contemplate what is next the thoughts of my son graduating soon have started to weigh on me more than I would like. I mean I am so happy and proud he is graduating and that he has done so well, Principles List, Outstanding Senior and early admission to every college he applied too. I get that those are fantastic things and I couldn't be more proud. But really, I haven't honestly let myself think about him actually going off to college and what that means. There is something so comforting about waking in the night and knowing your child is sleeping safely in the next room. There is something comforting about knowing your child is home safe and sound period. Our son was never the type of child to be far from us. As a matter of fact the longest he was ever gone from home was to Leadership Academy two summers ago and even then I knew he was on a strict schedule dominated by tons of Senior Military instructors. But college...ugh. I take a comfort in knowing our son is responsible, I take comfort in knowing my son has a big goal and partying and getting in trouble are not really in his "make-up". My hubs and I joke about Michael being the "Alex P. Keaton type", he is very conservative and doesn't enjoy chaos at all. Most of all we have to trust that he knows right from wrong and I belive he does. I want him to stay under my protective wings forever but I know that isn't possible and it isn't possible because my husband and I did what we were supposed to do as parents, we prepared him to be a responsible adult, we didn't raise a child, we raised a man. I want to share one of my favorite passages on parenting. It is from a book that was given to me by my mother and I used to read this passage and thought it was so true, now more than ever I need to believe it.

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

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.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For 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 stable.



What is waiting for him out there? A bright future!