"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."
- Khalil Gibran
This is when empty nest sucks, when you have yet another epiphany that it's all over. Today's epiphany came as I was wondering the streets of Sacramento and stumbled into a used bookstore. There a young mother was wiping her son's nose while her Goldielocks of a princess was trying to get her attention. "Mommy, Mommy, MOOOMMMY - looook it's seeping booty read me seeping booty mommy". That word - mommy - will never be uttered to me like that ever again, it has been replaced with mom (usually with an annoyed inflection). Is it that big of a deal? It's just a pet name.
Yes, it pokes at me today, needles even. I use to be mommy and now I'm not - they might as well call me DeAnna.
How pathetic..................................................
Its times like this that I question everything...I regret everything....I feel like s**t because I want my babies back.
The poem is so true, but did I raise them that way?? Why didn't I stumble across that little gem twenty years ago?
This is not an apology for feeling abandoned or even a plea for sympathy or regret from those who may read it, it is simply a statement of the fact that I get it...my babies have not abandoned me because they don't love me, they are just doing what we all do, they are becoming. They were never mine.......I love them.....but no longer get to wipe a nose or read seeping booty.
......................................................empty nest is realizing that you were just a household appliance in the most literal sense and now your warranty is up.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday."
- Khalil Gibran
This is when empty nest sucks, when you have yet another epiphany that it's all over. Today's epiphany came as I was wondering the streets of Sacramento and stumbled into a used bookstore. There a young mother was wiping her son's nose while her Goldielocks of a princess was trying to get her attention. "Mommy, Mommy, MOOOMMMY - looook it's seeping booty read me seeping booty mommy". That word - mommy - will never be uttered to me like that ever again, it has been replaced with mom (usually with an annoyed inflection). Is it that big of a deal? It's just a pet name.
Yes, it pokes at me today, needles even. I use to be mommy and now I'm not - they might as well call me DeAnna.
How pathetic..................................................
Its times like this that I question everything...I regret everything....I feel like s**t because I want my babies back.
The poem is so true, but did I raise them that way?? Why didn't I stumble across that little gem twenty years ago?
This is not an apology for feeling abandoned or even a plea for sympathy or regret from those who may read it, it is simply a statement of the fact that I get it...my babies have not abandoned me because they don't love me, they are just doing what we all do, they are becoming. They were never mine.......I love them.....but no longer get to wipe a nose or read seeping booty.
......................................................empty nest is realizing that you were just a household appliance in the most literal sense and now your warranty is up.
No comments:
Post a Comment