KID MAY BE CLOSER TO LEAVING THAN THEY APPEAR

 

There are few things that make me more sad or more excited than this looming reality.  It is a frame-of-reference thing where I am either an empty-nester or proud parent of a pre-adult on the cusp of living their own adventure.

The two oftentimes live simultaneously in my awareness and it reminds me of a well known icon in the Orthodox tradition regarding Mary “Joy of All Who Sorrow”; that juxtaposition of joy and sorrow somehow intertwined.

I’ve also heard it referred to as “bright sadness” in Orthodox spirituality that recognizes the profound beauty all around us as well as the taint of that beauty in how we treat ourselves, others, and the world created by God.

Maybe it is the simultaneity of that experience in relation to my daughter’s leaving home eventually that aims for something deeper and allows me to skirt the edge of despair that I sometimes find myself teetering on.

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