like moo, and junk

Shannon and Nicole are back on campus, leaving behind a quiet house and bored cats lounging on random bits of flotsam. Summer vacation is over. This end of August leave-taking is familiar ground to us, we have walked it a dozen times or more.

When the first child leaves for college, there is a wrenching sense of work unfinished. Words unspoken. Needs unmet. You comfort yourself with the knowledge that this is an ongoing process. Your child will be home for vacations and next August leave-taking will be easier. And it is.. Through the years each child heading to college has been a source of great pleasure and pride to us. And there has always been the comfort that the familiar pageantry will continue next year. Except this is the last year–Shannon and Nicole will graduate next May.

While I wrestle with the enormity of this, I watch Rachel deal with a leave-taking at the other end of the spectrum. Her heart’s desires were met last school year when Evelyn was born May 31st and the teaching job she has yearned for was offered almost simultaneously.  Now those worlds are about to merge. School will start in a week, and Evelyn and her parents will dance around the baby-care routine. By coincidence, Evelyn will be 100 days old on the first day of school. An auspicious day in Eastern cultures, it means she will be a complete little person now!

Princess Sparklepants and Cap'n Aye Aye Sir

This entry was posted on August 30, 2009 at 5:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.