Free Patterns

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

A Thousand and One Pieces


NY Spring 076
Originally uploaded by emmasdaughter
As children, we cannot wait to grow up.
To be bigger.
To be allowed to stay up as long as we want and not have to ask our parents if we can.
As children we are so unaware.
As we grow to our teen years, that yearning increases.
That yearning comes forth as rebellion in some.
It causes us to reach out to friends before family.
To explore our lives and challenge our limits.
If we are lucky,
our parents allow us to test our boundaries
and accept the consequences of our actions.
If we are lucky,
our parents provide us with that much needed safety net in life.
As young adults,
if we are lucky,
that safety net is still there.
It is still there even if it is a bit of a fall to get there.
If we have been lucky enough to have close friends and a supportive family,
our young adult years go as smoothly as can be expected.
Then,
we have children of our own.
We watch them grow.
We do the best we can to prepare them for their adult lives.
We allow them to make mistakes.
We hurt for them.
We laugh with them.
We glow with pride at their accomplishments and
cry with them when they fall.
As they grow to adults,
we realize that the hearts of our parents are so invested in us.
Us, the adults.
We realize that because now,
our hearts are invested in our children.
Each step they take causes our heart to break;
not in a bad way mind you but break nonetheless.
Our children take a bit of our heart with them on their journey through life.
They may not know this,
but their lives turn our hearts into a thousand and one pieces of joy and sorrow.

To my children - take those pieces of my heart and build a bridge to your dreams.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That's beautiful. You are one inspired and poetic mom.

Boondock Ma (Kim's Mom) said...

Bev, that is just beautiful! Your words captured the essence of it all so well. Thank You for sharing this!

The picture's nice too! ;-)

Fran said...

That's beautiful, Bev. You hit the nail right on the head. I keep wanting to write something like this for each one of my kids and illustrate it. I go over the words in my head so many times but haven't put them on paper yet. I do tell them very often though, how much they mean to me. One day, I'll write it, too. Thanks for sharing.

Sigrun said...

Beautiful. My second daughter wasn't a lot of trouble to raise. A bit of curfew testing in high school, phone bills too high, but generally well behaved. she thought we were the meanest parents going because we had limits and consequences, and her friends were not so encumbered. After her first child was born, one day we were doing dishes and she hugged me and said "Mom, I'm so sorry". "About what?" "What I put you and dad through, now that I'm a mom I get it."