to my daughter
June 22, 2015 § 2 Comments
The house is too quiet and the rooms too tidy without the parade of distracted play that so often litters your path. I miss your nest of early morning tangles and your stubborn late night tangents.
I’ve enjoyed every stolen minute with your brother in your absence; still, there is a place in my day where only you fit and without you the hours feel a little lopsided. I wonder at the whirlwind of personality that dislocates the molecules we cannot see into a feeling I cannot escape; there is an energy to your stillness that fills unexceptional moments with an intangible source of comfort.
Today I’m counting down to arms that fold neatly around my neck and stories that chase away the chores. Give Daddy a kiss for me, I’ll see you both tonight.
Love, Mom
scribblechic 
I remember, after I moved out of my parents’ house post-college, my mother sending me a card saying it felt like I had died every time she passed my room. I was 300 miles away. I think mothers bear the brunt of children being away, whether for a week or years. There’s a connection there that goes beyond physical proximity but the physical proximity is a welcome reminder of the whirling, twirling balls of love & energy we create:).
I’m glad you mentioned college. I struggle against the reality that both my children will one day leave; knowing their independence is central to my task in motherhood. It seems impossible to imagine an absence greater than slumber parties or school trips.
I suppose this is why we let go in stages, so that we guard ourselves against loosing our balance as we twirl through the happy madness of our children’s childhoods.