Yesterday my son made his way to Spain, a trip which included him traveling through four different airports. A trip that included a last minute covid test which caused him to miss his first plane, a name difference between his plane ticket and passport, and a missing last leg of the trip that needed to be straighten out at JFK’s airport. And he still made it to Spain in one piece.
Jacob landed in Spain at 6am (our time) and connected with his teacher. After that my nervous system started to settle down. After a while I realized that I was also experiencing grief. All change has some grief in it.
All of this happening made me a little crazy. I keep saying that there is a reason, that in Africa they take the boys away from their mamas for initiation.
I once asked a mom that I knew, for her advice about raising children and what she told me was that lots of people will tell me to celebrate my kids milestones but she told me to grieve them. I have learned through the years how very important this is, so today I grieve who we were before Jacob left for his trip and I celebrate who we are growing to be now.
Quanita