Today I join this writing community for Five Minute Friday with the prompt, Growing. Writing briefly from the overflow of the heart.
Just five minutes of writing. No editing, no over-thinking, no back tracking. This challenges me to walk in freedom. I challenge you to do the same. Cozy up in your own place and write for just five minutes. In your journal, on a napkin, at your laptop right in front of you now. Just. Write.
Ready? GO.
I wave goodbye to her standing there with my car keys in her hand. The ones that were mine. She stands eye to eye with me now.
I think about those days she sat cuddled in a car seat with Winnie the Pooh. The days we carpooled and I eavesdropped on her conversations. The times she crawled in my van with friends. The giggles, the whispers, toys in hands, a game of punch buggy.
And now these days have passed.
I stand in the mist on this cloud-covered morning, wave goodbye as she drives herself away. This season has waved goodbye.
Those fifteen minute conversations in the car when I pick her up from school. The music blaring from the ipod, her music. Her smiles. Her sharing what she loves. Those small windows go with growing up.
Growing is good. But growing is saying goodbye to what was and looking forward to what will be.
I am thankful today for the growth of my teenage daughter. The growing looks good on her and challenges me to become new.
What does growing mean for you today?
Psalm 139
Ugh, I can NOT imagine my baby girl driving off by herself. Yes, that must be the hardest kind of growing for a mom. Savoring the days now of her only being 6 months old 🙂
I am definitely in a fresh season of trusting Him deeply. When she was 6 months old I thought the days would never end. Now that she is 16 I wonder where the time has gone. I am so touched you commented here when I know how many link to you today. Made my day. Thank you Lisa-Jo.
This is beautiful and yet so bittersweet because we want our kids to grow into fine adults, but at the same time want to keep them small too! My boys are still very young and I savor these days, this season because I know before I know it – they will be all grown! Have a blessed day!
It is a lesson in letting go and remembering that they are His. Savor time with them while you can. Thanks for sharing here Dawn!
“But growing is saying goodbye to what was and looking forward to what will be.” Love it! I have elementary aged children now but know in the blink of an eye they will be where your daughter is now. Thank you for your post, for your beautiful thoughts on growing.
Thank you Tracey. Trying to be more alert to seeing the gifts in the midst of the everyday mundane. Enjoy them while they are young, the time goes so fast.
Tears in remembrance. “Too many good-byes”
The only thing harder than watching my daughter drive off alone for the first time (in an ice storm, I might add) has been leaving her at college and watching her grow smaller and smaller in my rear view mirror. Those 15 minutes a day in the car have turned into texts and e-mails and I can’t make the next week go fast enough when I will finally get to hug her in person. When my baby girl was really a BABY girl, no one could have convinced me that one day she would become an amazing young woman and actually LEAVE me! (Even though my head knows that this has been the goal all along, my heart is not yet in agreement.) This parenting thing just STINKS sometimes!!! I want my babies back! (Sorry, just a warning not to blink during the next couple of years!)
Diane, it still seems like yesterday that our babies were playing together. BTW, I didn’t let Murielle drive to work in the rain today so I can’t even imagine an ice storm!! Thanks for leaving a comment here, it is so good to have this conversation. Miss you!