Shrinking Nest Syndrome

As my wife and I prepare to send our second out of four children to college, I have many mixed feelings.  Elizabeth will be leaving in just a few days to attend CNU, and I am anxious for her in much of the same way as I was with Michael.  There is the part that wants her to stay and the other part that knows she has grown as much as she can in the environment we have tried to create for her.  It is the natural order to things, but I don't always have to like it.

I managed to dust off something I wrote for Michael (but don't think I ever showed him) in the days following the start of his freshmen orientation at William and Mary to share here.  Though the exact wording might be different, if I were to write something for Elizabeth, it would largely be the same.

To my children...Love, Dad


Four                                                                            August 2010       

This house held the rhythm of its four children…

Its sounds and smells of the days of the rhythms of four

And now there are three.

Nothing tragic has passed, just a natural progression of time.

This is what was supposed to happen all along,

What we planned for; what we hoped for.

We will not miss the screams and fights,

But our mornings and nights will miss the rhythm of four

That you brought with it.

The house will adapt to the rhythm of three,

Who sleeps where, who sits there.

The house will not ease into this new cadence,

It just will.

We on, the other hand, will need time.

At the same time, the house cannot be proud,

But we can.