Interestingly enough, we can all be reduced to this feeling at times when it comes to our parents.......
But what's swirling in my life at the moment, keeping me awake some nights, is quite the opposite.....
There's an often subtle intersection in our lives, so sly that we may not even notice, when we switch places with the ones who raised us up to be the people we are today. Those obscure moments when a parent suddenly can't do something simple that they've done all their lives. It might be something as simple as reaching that thing off the shelf that they need, to the inevitable relinquishing of the car keys.
My own mother and I are going through this very process....slowly....one difficult step at a time. The car issue happened earlier this year, but not without the speed bumps! She, like most aging folks, faught me tooth and nail, telling me it was NOT going to happen! I got clever and had her ever-adored doc give her the bad news. That somehow seemed to soften the blow.
Just a few weeks ago I had a Facebook friend post that she had given her keys up to her children that day. The tone of her post seemed to be "matter of factly" about having to do it, rather than annoyed or bitter. I took it one step further and pointed out to her how brave she actually was!!! I told her she was not only showing great care of herself, but great responsibility in caring about the safety of others too.
Tonight I talked with my mom about her final wishes. It's not that it's an immediate issue or anything. It strangely seemed like a weird, reversed, right of passage talk, almost like them when they had to teach us the birds-n-bees!
You would think that growing up, getting an education, working and having children of your own would somehow prepare you for this milestone in your life.....but it doesn't. It feels so unnatural to me, yet it is so very natural and part of God's plan.
And so we all at some point, will cross this bridge.....sturdy for the task at hand.....ready to make it work, but it don't come easy!
