Monday, March 01, 2010

Closure



Some things need to be let go, eventually.

Sometimes you know it's leading that way because things get all out of kilter,
and there is wrestling, and letting go, and taking back up again.

And pieces of the puzzle that have fit before
don't fit anymore.
They can't be jammed back into their spaces.
No matter how hard you jam.

I know that as my children grow up,
all of the skirmishes, the discipline, the laughter, the coddling,
leads to this moment of letting go.

And I see it in my oldest, I can see it happening.

He is seventeen years old and wanting to be free,
but not ready yet,
squirming in his ill-fitting childhood clothes,
wrestling with his status,
clinging to infancy in some ways,
doffing it so completely in others.

"Me do it!"
he would say, at age 2.

And I would step back
and let him do it,
so clumsily and independently
and beautifully.

Like I am now.

*

3 comments:

Brian Miller said...

it is hard. we want them to grow and get there, but then that next step...letting go. and letting them flail or flourish....

CiCi said...

Some kids want to be independent more than others. A wise mother knows how much and when to let go. Good for you to be that wise mother.

Heidi Lee said...

I'm not there yet.

I don't want to be.

It's really going to be tough letting go.

Your awesome!