It’s that time of year again when my emotions morph into schmaltzy-mode and I become a bit out-of-sorts. It happens every year when school is back in session and the house becomes quiet and still.
When the kids (in this case, our last one!) leave to go back to school, I always like to have a project lined up that takes my mind off what’s going on. This is our youngest child’s second year of college, for crying out loud! It doesn’t get any easier. The hustle and bustle has been silenced.
On one hand, I have always cherished solitude and treasure my alone time. On the other, I was destined to be a mom. I do so enjoy the chatter and busyness of children and, especially, young adults. My mothering instincts will remain in me until the Lord calls me Home. (Who knows, I’ll probably be mothering someone in Heaven.)
We’ve tried to raise our kids to become independent, think through problems and find solutions on their own. It’s how God intended families: nurturing and teaching our children, and then letting them go. I liken it to the sparrows I wrote about last week. Those little fledglings were tended to lovingly, fed, taught, and when it was time, they flew away.
The cozy little nest clinging to the ceiling beam in the barn is now empty. Looking up at it I feel a sense of loss and a bit of sadness. A little sappy, I know, but it’s such a parallel to what I’m facing in my personal life at this time of the year.
Just now, there is much activity on the farm. Good thing for busyness! We are presently harvesting our third crop hay and looking ahead to the corn. Isn’t the corn around the county sensational this year? This has been a great corn-growing season, receiving rain just when it was needed most.
We planted a field of corn that happens to be right next to the house. Throughout the season I’ve watched it grow almost before my very eyes. I feel like we have a hedge of privacy on our farm on the hill with that lovely field of corn. This is the same field where we were hunting for that little runaway newborn calf those couple of weeks ago. That calf, by the way, is doing great, growing and still very feisty.
One morning I had inadvertently left the pen door unlocked when I was cleaning out one of the calf pens, and that calf was one of those we housed in that particular pen. Our daughter happened to be on duty for chores that night and when she walked into the barn, three calves met her at the door! She was a one-man rodeo there for a while.
Later, after apologizing profusely, I asked her how she managed to get three calves back inside their pen all by herself. “It wasn’t easy, Mom!” she laughed. She wasn’t laughing, however, when she was trying to get them in!
Along with her just being whom she is, her willingness to help is one thing I’ll miss terribly when she’s back in college. She has been our right-hand-man all summer. She likes to keep busy. I think we’re related.
Like the momma and daddy sparrow, we are squarely looking at the empty nest. In the weeks to come I will have to stay busy. Hay and then corn harvest will be a welcoming distraction for me. I think I might need a project. I’m pretty sure something needs organizing around here.
(“…because he said, ‘May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.’” Genesis 31:49)
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