I’ve had neither the time nor the inclination to write and add any entries into my journal. Life has been relatively calm around the homestead but a few items of interest have taken place since I last wrote. Perhaps if I try to condense them into small vignettes, I’ll actually succeed in making an entry.
On May 11th, we celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary and, of course, went to the same place we’ve been going for the past several years, our beloved springs. The weather was most cooperative and we had a lovely time as always. We were able to stay three nights and four days this time. As is often the case, our anniversary trip coincided with Mother’s Day. The attendance is usually large for this occasion; many young families with babies and small children visit the springs but it was not so this year. I’m thinking that high gas prices may be a factor.
Upon my return home from this little getaway, I found a gift from my daughter on the kitchen counter. I lifted a pretty lidded box out of the gift bag, opened it and found many small slips of paper folded up inside. I pulled a few out and began to read. On each paper, my daughter had written a specific thank you for each nice thing she remembered me doing for or with her. There were a lot of folded notes in that box and by the time I read the last one, I was quite overcome with this tidal wave of love from my daughter. She, like her Dad, is a thoughtful and inventive gift giver. A great deal of time and effort went into this gift and that along with all the nice memories she noted made it one of the best presents I’ve ever received. This is the type of thing that gives a parent reassurance that she’s done a good job with her child’s upbringing. We can all use some positive reinforcement on that subject!
This brings us to June. Ah, June...June of 2006. This is the June I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time. This is the June of my son’s graduation from high school. There were more than a few times when I worried seriously that he wasn’t going to do so. The past six years since he began junior high have been fraught with tension, upset, disappointment and apathy.
This past Friday, June 9th, I felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders as I watched my son walk down the aisle to the strains of the ever familiar Pomp and Circumstance. I, for one, felt quite pomp(ous) and this graduation was quite a circumstance. When my son was handed his diploma and stepped forward to present himself with diploma in hand to the audience, I breathed an audible sigh of relief. As my son passed by my seat in the recessional from the graduation platform, he passed his diploma to me saying, "here Mom, this is for you". I think he meant it as a joke but there was more than a little truth in that statement. I fretted and agonized over every missed assignment as if I were the one attending school. This was a mistake on my part but one I think many mothers are guilty of making.
Truly, graduation is the closing of one door and the opening of another in our lives. It is a pivotal moment and I never recognized it as such when I graduated from high school 35 long years ago. My life following graduation was mapped out and I pretty much stuck with the plan and things worked out well. My son’s future is an open book. I don’t know what he wants to do and I don’t think he does either. Whatever he chooses, the responsibility to achieve his goals rests with him. I will always be loving, supportive and interested but I will no longer agonize over whether or not his work is completed. That’s his job now.
