In these last moments of summer it feels like the last moments of parenthood.
Oh my, and I thought the first day of kindergarten was a challenge. It's a #Blogelul trifecta of endings and beginnings, laced with nervousness but mainly hope. (I intend to get back on schedule now, but that is blogelul for another day--no wait, that's today!).
It's been a summer on the precipice. Our emerging young adults have been wandering, wondering, hanging around, waiting, it seems, for their childhoods to end and their lives to begin. The weeks rolled by and we began to wonder ourselves--what will the next steps look like, when will they take place? (And, in darker moments, WILL they?). In some ways it felt like a summer of worry. Yet I got a little lesson in hope from a movie: "In India we have a saying. Everything will be all right in the end. If it is not alright, then it is not the end." Most Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Good. Breathe.
And then, in what seems one neat weekend, everything comes together. A job is accepted, a college drop-off accomplished, a journey to a new state embarked upon. As we turn the corner from summer into fall during this transitional weekend, a perfect storm of endings and beginnings all roll up together. Kids are here, and then, after 23 years of having them around, they are gone.
The departures have been eager, upbeat, full of optimism tinged with a few doubts yet lots of hope. They're ready. Are we? Who knows. The dust is just beginning to settle. Yet we're making our own plans. We want to be intentional about this transition. We want to create new patterns, not simply fall into them. There's a long road behind us, and a different road ahead. We'll want to navigate, not drift.
Funny that this is all running into the Elul time of reflection. I don't have any learning to share, or research that I've stumbled upon. I'm sure there is a message in here that the teachings of Judaism can illuminate, but I'm not thinking about any of that right now. I just want to mark this moment. This very real, yet in many ways, very quiet moment. End. Begin. Hope . . . Intend
