Moving Day

 

It's move in day!  The car is packed.  Mini fridge, microwave, clothes, dance gear, pillows, bedding, stuffed animals, food and cooking supplies.  It's there.  We leave in about an hour.  He stripped his bed and the sheets are in the wash.  The bed that won't need to be remade tonight.  

I took this photo at the Jacob's Pillow center when we were there last week for the hip hop class.  Martha  Graham was one of the founders of the Pillow (along with Ted Shawn) and the quote actually refers to dance.  But it is also so true about parenting.  It's about helping our kids find their wings and take those first, sometimes halting flights to independence.  Not pushing out of the nest, but guiding them to the edge with encouragement.  Lifting up when the down drafts try and grab them helping them flap the wings just a bit harder.

It will be hard tonight when I go up to bed and I don't hear him in his room--music playing, or chatting with friends. I'm not sure what I'll do  then but I too will find my way.  This is a new place in parenting.  With a big family I have never even come close to empty nesting.  I need to be intentional about finding my new wings too.  I'm taking a dance class this fall.  That is one thing.  I'll find others as well.