Letting Go

Letting go can be hard, especially for a mother. Letting them take the car for a long drive to see a friend. Letting them go to explore and try new things you have not dared like skiing down a slope. Letting them go on a flight overseas to visit other lands without you there at any of these times to watch or hold their hands.

Watching them gain independence and learn to stand on their own. Letting them go so they can grow and try new things alone. Letting them go to leave the nest and get their own place and sending them with gifts of plates and towels and other things they need to start out and your best wishes.

It can be hard, like the first time they walked to school and asked you not to accompany them. But letting go is a gift. It is the wings they need to succeed. It is saying I believe in you as you hide your worry. Letting them go as they move miles away to make their own home.

Not seeing them for months at a time but allowing them their space is a gift too. A gift of love. Keeping in touch is important as is encouragement. They have solid roots and will bloom wherever they are for they know who they are and that they are loved.

You send little care packages to remind them of home and of a mother's love. You share pictures and long telephone calls. Cards and letters make their way across the miles. They are always near to you in your heart. You are there for the good times and there for the bad times.

You're a mom and you find that they are there for you too. To encourage you in new things, a career change, going it alone. You share laughter and tears. You brag about them to your friends. They too have children far away. They understand. But love knows no distance.

Their presence is alive in all that you see and do. It will be time for a visit soon and you'll share their favorite foods and places that they've missed or they will show you their new discoveries in what is now home to them. Letting go is empowering and filled with faith.

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