Letting Go

I have let go of the assumption that my daughters will go to university.
I have let go of pre-determined images of their adult lives.
I have let go of assuming that being intellectual is the key to their happiness and success;
- it is my key, but not everyone's.
I have let go of my desires for more and more material possessions;
- they are acquiring theirs.
I have let go of the notion that I can still "guide" my daughters;
- I can only love them and make myself available to support them when they feel they need it.
I have let go of the assumption that they will live and love like me.
I have let go of the sermons of why living like me, or like I think they should live, should be their living path.

It is a challenging road, this one of letting go.
It has been a gradual realization as we have advanced along our path;
- my values of a different generation and a different culture are not the same values by which they navigate their lives in today's Spain.

I can only hope that the core values of love, respect, integrity, understanding and giving, that we have shown them by our life examples, will have influenced them more than our words of sermons and lecturing have done.

Of all these things, as a mother, I have let go....or so I tell myself.....but have they let go of me?

From my journal dated March 17th 08