Filing Flight Plans at Four

Andres with his rocket at Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum this Fall

One evening, a few weeks ago, my son announced that he was going to the moon. Then he pointed to me and in a loud voice said "And you can't come" then to my husband Mark "and you can't come! I'm going  ALL ..BY.. MY..SELF!!". It was hard to keep a straight face at this sudden proclamation or not to think of a few comeback lines I could say, but I did my best to play along as I could see he meant business. Mark, feigning tears, sobbed over having been excluded from the trip of a lifetime.

The whole scene was rather amusing  but I couldn't help but wonder where this sudden need for independence came from and why we weren't included in his travel plans. And then this passage from one of my favorite Khalil Gibran poetic essays  came to mind. It reminded me that this was just the beginning of many steps towards becoming his own person~ something to encourage and celebrate, bittersweet as it may be..

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them  your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

So Andres, if you want to go to the moon, I'll pack a lunch or two for you and Dad will make sure you have plenty of rocket fuel for the trip. I forgot to ask, but you will be coming back, right?

H a p p y   F o u r t h   B i r t h d a y!

We love You :)

p.s.  I'll be back Friday with the winner of the doll giveaway  (Drawing will be closed on Friday 3pm).

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and safe travels :)