Yesterday as I was going to take a shower, my toddler came into the bathroom and wanted to come in too. I was shampooing my hair with one hand while I held him in the other and he giggled as he bobbed his hand in and out of the spray. Hearing his laughter, my six year old daughter came into the bathroom and wanted to join the fun. As I stood in a corner of the shower getting mostly clean, I didn’t yearn for my privacy, I thought of this beautiful post written by Jack Canfora on the Pointless Overthinking blog.
By Jack Canfora look
In my younger and (seemingly) more vulnerable years as a parent, I had assumed that taking care of a child through their infancy and youth would be the most demanding part of parenting. I certainly expected some bumps in adolescence and in between, but I felt confident there would reach a point at which I could sit back and, having tried to do my best (with varying degrees of success), I could feel less worried, less vigilant and beholden.
Unsurprisingly, I was an idiot.
The challenges merely shift. Today my daughter left for Berlin to study for the semester. Though I’m sure she’ll face challenges, it will ultimately be among the more defining and transformative periods of her life. It also solidifies, for me, that she is essentially and irrevocably an adult.
All of this is good; it is, in fact, wonderful. It’s a true blessing…
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Surprised By Joy 