Solo

Events unfold.  The Earth turns.  The sun rises and sets and rises.  The family goes its own way.


It's natural for kids to venture out on their own.  And the empty nest is only so physically.  Mentally and spiritually, home is full of memories.  Yet, we don't live in the past.  We springboard into what awaits us and what we do with the future.


Children are NOT pieces of us.  They are sovereign individuals who come from other sovereign individuals, tied together with blood perhaps, but mostly with love, caring responsibility.  Ask anyone loved enough to be adopted.


At a point, save for occasional advice perhaps, kids are on their own.  That's as it should be.  Thus, parents are on their own too.  Each has the ability to explore, to determine what they want to do with the rest of their lives.


I don't regret a minute of raising the kids.  Well, the diapers weren't fun but you roll up your sleeves and get the job done.  Nothing is completely smooth and straight.  There are a lot of bumps and curves and grades.  We got through it.


Now the 4 of us are flying solo.  Each has goals and we are working on them.


Yet love binds.


Kind of the family kernel of E Pluribus Unum.