Having had a truly empty nest for a year and a half you would think I've fully let go. But with the holidays came a feeling of being in a "time warp". Everything seemed as it always was, yet the delight of all being together as a family was tempered with the wistfulness of letting go- yet again.
Over the years, there have been many goodbyes. Off to camp. Off to college. The Peace Corps. Graduate School. And now a long Naval deployment is on the horizon. It's not as if this was not expected- and even desired- but how did it all happen so fast?
It is all as it should be. Our greatest wish for our children is that they become independent and build lives for themselves. That they become -to paraphrase Kahlil Gibran- 'the living arrows that fly swift and far'. Sometimes they fly a little farther than you had expected.
But they know the way home.
