Milestones

It's been a week of milestones.  There have been birthdays, "last Tuesday with head on own pillow until Thanksgiving", first anniversary of a friend's death.  Summer is doing what summer does, slipping away like a ninja, and it's time to take the boys back to college.  The house will be less fun.  I'll get more sleep, and it might even be cleaner (not by much), but it's a poor trade for the energy they bring.  There aren't that many more summers when they'll want to come home.  Before I know it, the tuition traumas will be over and they'll be off living their own lives.  But before we get that far there is a road trip and some fun along the way.

This learning to let go is interesting.  I never thought I'd be able to manage it, but it grows out of the love I feel for them, out of my wanting what's best for them in the long run.  One by one my kitty claws are retracting and I'm accepting their choices, their absences, their (horrible) hours.  And it's not even a huge sacrifice on my part.  It just feels like "the next thing".  There is a selfish component in all this as well.  I'm still growing and learning and wanting to try new things.  Now I'll have some time to figure out which new things.

I've never seen Son Number Two's college, so that's going to be interesting.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does not thrill me, but Himself is agog at the thought, so that's fine with me.  At this point I'm along for the ride and keeping my eyes and my heart wide open, memorizing every vanishing moment without being maudlin about it.  As you know, my motto is "Life is short, and so am I."  So pay attention.