Deep Thoughts: Letting Go

Are you feeling the press of the upcoming holidays? We are too, though ours is feeling even more bittersweet with the season we are in with our youngest daughter. She is in the midst of applying for college and that means we are in on the ride. 

This is a journey that you might consider when you kids are young as you look into the future. And then when you get there there, no matter how much you prepare it still catches you off guard. The campus visits, the applications, the questions of where they may end up. 

When your kids are small this all feels so far away. I can't even describe how it feels to be in the middle of the process. I still picture this little monkey and now we are talking about moving her away! It makes me want to hold her tighter, but I know it's the thing to do to let her go! 

Kate has taken a different route and lives nearby with her boyfriend. I have been teasing her that we are going to drive them crazy hanging out with them! She has grown into an awesome adult that we love hanging out with. Smart, warm with the best sense of humor. 

So it's a ride we go on willingly...watching our kids grow up and leave. We know that they don't leave forever. It's just the end of another phase in our life with them. And it takes some mourning of the past. Of the part of our lives that is gone forever. But there is good stuff waiting for us on the other side. So, I give myself moments to be sad. Then we go on with the search for where our monkey will end up next year. And we wait to see what the future will bring!