I’ve always had a saying, “the only reason I get up at 5am is for a plane ride”… until today.
Today I got up at 2:30am, not to make a plane ride but to help my son make a plane.
They say that parting is such sweet sorrow. After 2 ¾ years of military mom life, I’m still not quite sure what the sweet part is, as my heart breaks every time I Iet him go… and let him go I must, so I do.
As I sit in my hotel room, packing up and getting ready to move on with my life for the next 8 months without him, it occurs to me, we are all saying good-bye.
We are all packing up and saying “see ya later” to yet another year. As this week moves along we are all packing up, deciding what needs to come along, and what needs to be left behind.
This has been an incredible year in so many ways, and really hard, in some of the same ways. There have been gifts in the struggles, and struggles in the gifts.
One of my favorite practices for the end of the year is to write a letter to the year that I am leaving behind. It’s a love letter of sorts, many of you have heard me talk about this, it’s my way of saying thank you for ALL of it; the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s cathartic. It helps me remember and process and release and remind myself how far I’ve come in 365 days.
I believe in gratitude for everything, because I’m old enough to know life requires a much bigger picture than any isolated event provides us.
Take some time during this final week, so take inventory, to have gratitude and to say goodbye.
As I sit here ready to head home as Christian is on a plane doing the same, it occurs to me. There is a sweet in this sorrow. He is creating HIS life; he is married, successful and building on that, he has great friends, is well respected in his work and is letting his nature for leadership shine through. He lives in a beautiful place and is heading out to “see the world” in a couple weeks. There is a strong future for him and many roads to take. He’s in a really good place in his life.
Much life leaving this year behind I am so grateful, there is good in the struggle and struggle in the good. While it’s never easy to let go, there are great things ahead.
We must, so we do.
Forever the journey, Anne