My Children and I are Growing Up

I remember feeling a strong sense of certainty and contentment when my children were born. I was a mother and I had a purpose and a place to focus my heart. Someone told me at the time that being a mother was like having a little shadow that would follow me everywhere all the time. Well, that isn't exactly the way I remember it. I did most of the following, protecting my young like a mother goose, and although I didn't feel shadowed by my children, I knew they were paying attention to what I did even when they pretended not to hear me.

When I think back to my own childhood, many of my most vivid memories are around what my parents did rather than what they said. I remember my father driving an extra 15 miles on a cold night to return $20 that was overpaid to him by an order taker in a drive-through window. I remember my mother driving to the store in the middle of a blizzard to prepare for my birthday party one year, despite the fact that she was eight months pregnant.

I have other memories but these two were on my mind today as I watched both of my children go off to work this morning. My son will be returning to college in the fall and my daughter will graduate from high school next year. For now I continue to enjoy my front-row view into my children's lives but I know this will change soon. Twenty years from now when they look back on their own childhood, I can only hope that they will have memories as rich as mine. My parents left me a legacy of love, honesty and compassion. I wonder what my children will remember.