As parents of children that are growing up and leaving home, we find great difficulty with the process.  Well most of us!  I can say that because I remember sitting in the welcome to the parents session at our first child’s college.  My husband and I seemed to be the minority in not being happy that ours was leaving the nest.  Other parents cheered when comments by the speaker were made about an empty house and free time.  We sat silent and looked at each other, because we knew each of us was thinking we love them too much to let them go.  It was the same with our other two children.  All the goodbyes, even to this day, are very hard.  We are adapting, but we really miss all the discussions, all the activity, and I have to admit even some of the fighting.  Well when the fights ended in hugs and ice cream!  So today’s piece is for all the parents like us that did not cheer that day.  It is for those of us that cherish every second of time before leavings occur again.  We would much rather hurt for that type of love than not to love at all! But we will always miss them!

Parting Love

If loving you means having to tell you goodbye,

Then I will love you.

I will send you away a hundred times,

If I can love you a hundred times more.

 

Loving you is a treasure that has been laid at my feet.

The opportunity shines like the silver and gold of the treasure.

The moments with you are like the stars.

They remain infinitely within my heart.

 

Love transcends all the boundaries that exist.

The boundaries think they can stop the love.

To only find they dissipate as love touches their constraints.

The distance only makes the love stronger.

 

When we are miles apart,

Our hearts are entwined like the branches of a vine.

We don’t have to speak to know we are there to support each other.

It becomes not just words but energy.

 

Some squander love.

They allow it to stagnate like water.

Or they shift it like sand allowing the precious grains to fall away.

They allow the love from those that love them to slip away.

 

But for others,

They hold the love so close to their chest that it is absorbed by the skin,

Reaching deep into the workings of the heart.

It is like when they began as one and then became two.

 

My heart beat brought you to life.

And your heart beat brought me love.

So what feels like hurt from your absence,

Is growth of the love I have for you.

 

If I have you part to love you,

I will allow it.

I will accept the hurt and pain,

But only allowing it if I know that your heart will always be with mine.

Lori Rennae Hickman Chapman

Good luck to parents with babies (excuse me grown adults or adult children—you will always be our babies!) leaving home!  Hold in your heart the love that will always remain in that bond no matter how far they travel, you are with them and they are with you.  And remember they know they can always come home!

Love,

Rennae

 

 

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