The House of Tomorrow

 I actually wrote the previous post last Thursday but we got home so late that night that I forgot to finish and hit publish!  He has been at college now since 8/31  Move in went smoothly. They really have it down to a science.  I thought I would be carrying the furnishings and was a little worried as my wife's ankle is not good right now. But no!  They have a cadre of folks who help load stuff up and cart it to the room and all you have to do is put it away when you are there. Amazing! 

After the move in there was orientation and a lot of speakers and a delicous food truck supper.  Not going to lie though, driving away was hard.  Going to bed that night was hard.  And we have all missed him so much at so many times since he moved in.

But. . . he is supremely blissfully happy.  He is finding his tribe.  He has friends all ready.  He has plans and goals.  He is exactly where he needs to be at this point in his life. And incidently, yay for another successful homeschooler going to college!

And I am working on this new period in my life as well.  I have parented for almost 40 years.  I have forgotten how to NOT actively parent. LOL  Well, Elisabeth is still home but she too is so close to fledging and I am quite sure she will "adult" as soon as she is able.  

I have spent this weekend doing house projects with my wife.  Reorganizing spaces.  Building a new back step.  Repairing a back railing.  Taking down summer decor.  Putting away summer clothes and taking out the fall and cooler weather work duds.  Helping Chet wash the siding on the house. Hanging a new clothes line.  Cleaning our back storage room with Elisabeth. Bringing my mom her groceries and popping into work for a short bit on Saturday. Working on moving a ridiculous amount of pictures off my work phone onto my home computer one by one.

It's mostly all good, though I find I am somewhat lonely. It's okay.  As I told KC when he left, it is OK to be uncomfortable.  It's how we grow.  I will grow too.  I will gradually find new interests, people, experiences, that enrich my time.  I keep thinking of the poem by Gibran.  Our church uses this at child dedications:

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.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I think til now I did not think of the house of tomorrow that I will not visit.  But I am always willing to be the stable bow.