Back to school time already? I’m not sure how this happened.
What if I’m not ready to send my sweet stepdaughter off to Oregon?
What if I don’t want to move my youngest son back to Boulder?
Oh, right.
Sometimes I forget.
Our kids don’t wait for us to be ready.
Life keeps marching on.
Do you marvel as much as I do with each and every new grade your child starts?
“How can you be in kindergarten?”
“When did you turn into a fourth grader?”
“How can you possibly be in middle school?”
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my baby is starting high school!”
“Wow you’re a senior? How did that happen?”
“College? You’re going to live somewhere else??? Wow, those years went fast and slow!”
In the first days of parenthood, we’re never away from our child. Then there are little goodbyes when we need to go do our adult things. Then THEY start leaving US. We tend to celebrate these goodbyes because our kids are doing what we are raising them to do, which is growing up. They are venturing out into the world, even if it is only as far as the neighborhood kindergarten. But they always come home (if we’re lucky).
We do our honest best to create a family that is a solid, secure home base for our beloved kids to come home to. No one does it perfectly, but I see so many parents in my work and can attest to how hard you try.
Over the years, our kids’ wanderings can get farther away and the moments of coming home more spread out. Regardless of what our kids are doing, however, one thing remains constant: we always have ourself to come home to.
If WE want a warm, peaceful home base, we can focus on creating it inside our very own self. Our kids are not the only ones who need a loving, secure home base. We do, too. In fact, one of the ultimate best things we can do for our kids while they are still home is to do the work on ourselves to be loving, peaceful, and secure. When we do that inside ourselves, then we can give our kids a truly secure, loving home base that transcends what address they call “home.” And… when we do that, we give ourselves the gift of a forever secure, loving home base because it’s right here, inside our head and heart.
