Subtle Change

Change is hard sometimes, even when it's good. There is a lot of transition happening simultaneously in my world, and for many of you as well. Graduations, shifts in work, change of seasons... each of us holding on to some semblance of what we've known while looking forward to what is coming.

I write this from my porch, a favorite place of mine to spend mornings reflecting, working, and connecting with the people and furry friends in my home. I'm pensive. This weekend marks a subtle shift as my youngest child graduates from high school and I'm feeling pretty excited for what's next. I won't have an empty nest, but things will still change. And it's good. 

There's this sense that I've done my job, though we all know parenting doesn't end at 18. I've managed to birth and help steward three humans through their childhoods into relative independence and success since 1998. While the work continues, this is definitely an occasion to stop and celebrate: a milestone of many more to come. 

I've had a lot of help along the way, too. Grateful to my parents especially for being the bedrock of support, carpools, and love my kids and I have needed for nearly three decades. Grateful too, for their dad and the bonus father-figures, mothers, aunties, uncles, cousins, siblings, and friends who have and continue to surround and lift them in beautiful ways. 

I may have been a "single mom" for a lot of their upbringing, but I never, ever did this alone. 

 For that, I'm grateful.