Dotsie, I have no cure for your empty nest heartaches. But.....

When kids leave--they leave. It's over, adios, fini. They may bring you their laundry on occasion and will visit for Christmas and Thanksgiving and they will still love you--but they're gone. The genie has been let out of the bottle and cannot be stuffed back in.

It seems to me that there is no cure for the Mothertime Blues. You just spent half your life--since you were a young woman--looking out for and caring for and fighting for your children. Because you had to. Because you're the mom. Because the mom does what the mom has to do. There is no thanks, no orchestra and no finalé, no audience clapping. There is no public reward. You just exit stage left quietly and make no waves. The mom does her job and disappears.

I wish I knew why we put so much effort and love and time and energy into the children we love so much and get so little in return. Because that's the way life is. Because that's what moms do. There is no rainbow at the end of the tunnel except that you look at your children and know that you tried to grow good people for this world and did the best you could and something that you couldn't name made you do it. It's the mystery and grandeur of motherhood; it's the gift of life. You give it but you cannot control it.

It has always been and always will be. It's wonderful and heartbreaking and magic. No real sense can be made of it. We do it because we have to and our daughters will follow the same path. Motherhood is a beauty in the eye of the mother and women are the givers of life. It is the ebb and flow of humanity that we create and leave behind. Just be content that you did your part well...to be a mother is a special gift even if we don't know why.

I wish I knew. Maybe because we need children to love?

[ May 01, 2006, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: mrs_madness ]