Monday, December 8, 2008

Empty Nest Syndrome

Is there such a thing as empty nest syndrome? Well it's not whatever the researchers imagine it to be. They get the wrong answers because they start with the wrong premise and ask the wrong questions.
What do mothers miss?
We miss seeing our children in late afternoon and knowing at glance whether life has been good to them or they're coming home wounded. You still know how to make it up to them, how to heal their wounds but you're not there and you hope they can remember how to do it for themselves.
We miss shopping and cooking for a crowd of hungry people. My husband and I shouldn't, can't, don't have much enthusiasm for food anymore. Whether I cook or I don't cook doesn't much matter now - stunting our growth is now the goal.
We miss the life - the laughing, the arguing, the joys, the frustrations, the crowd of kids hanging around - the whole nine yards.
But you know what I miss most?
I don't have the same conversations with God. I'm not praying for patience or endurance or a guardian angel or please God let me live until they're raised or please don't let the Bishop think of us this year (We were easy to move because we didn't have things like a house, or a successful wife or the need for a moving company to protect expensive stuff - think the Beverley Hillbillies and you get the picture). I miss the solution to every single little thing requring a miracle.

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