Wednesday, August 17, 2016

First Day of the Last Year




I dropped Sophie off for the first day of her last year at school. I'd like to say that the years have flown by, but they haven't, and I felt choked up as I watched her aides wheel her inside. I don't know if it's sorrow or gratitude prickling at my throat, heavy. Am I weightless or weighed down, is the road straight or does it wind? Abide or endure?



I may lose at any moment through the play of circumstance over which I have no control, anything whatsoever I possess, including those things which are so intimately mine that I consider them as being myself.
Simone Weil 

16 comments:

  1. Lord. That's a hard mantra. And an emotional day.

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  2. That will be me in a few weeks. What to do next year is our theme this year!!

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  3. "I'd like to say that the years have flown by, but they haven't." I completely get that. I wish it could have been different. Thanks for putting it into words; I always thought I was the only parent who felt that way.

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  4. So sad, that this day which is usually joyous, should be loaded down with such grief. Something to do with what has been and what is to come. Those days that have not 'flown'.

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  5. Oh, Elizabeth. We're with you. Right here.

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  6. Abide, endure, or... Explore, still. I love the mosaic of footprints in the desert in that last picture.

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  7. And then there are the friends' children of the same age....the ones shining so brightly in sports gear and prom dresses and college visitations. The peaks in our world are not so picturesque.

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  8. And then there are the friends' children of the same age....the ones shining so brightly in sports gear and prom dresses and college visitations. The peaks in our world are not so picturesque.

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  9. Things have changed for you so much in this last year, all the parts of you.
    It is very touching to see you walk through them, sometimes leaving heavy footprints, sometimes just skimming the sands. You are one good, brave woman.

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  10. A milestone. Everything is changing again. I love what liv said. Hugs.

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  11. I love that quote, now if I could only remember it and even more importantly live it:)

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  12. Maybe it's sorrow AND gratitude. Doesn't have to be an either/or, does it?

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