The Great Paradox

Raising children, what a great paradox? Perhaps the strangest of all of our human characteristics. Humans keep their young for about 18 years (more or less) no other creature on this planet spends so much time grooming their young to become independent as humans do. Most other creatures out there spend a very short time raising their young. There are bird species that abandon their young when they are born an leave them to fend for themselves. The Ridley Sea Turtles circle the globe through it’s great oceans and seas but the females come back every year to the gulf coast beach at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to lay their eggs. They lay their eggs and head back to the sea, leaving their young to make it on their own, once they break out of their shells they are alone and head straight for the water to try and survive in this tough world.

So we work and work and work, we feel the immense responsibility of raising a child and we pour our love and knowledge and wisdom into them, we send them to school and teach them, groom, them, prepare them for life on their own, to live and act independently to be self sufficient. We sacrifice ourselves to shape and form this new human being just as we were so that they can go face the world on their own. Then they finally leave, they go out to blaze their own trail become their own person live their own life and when they leave a part of you goes with them. You have spent years raising that child and teaching them to become independent and not need us anymore and when they do leave you are proud, you are hopeful, you are sad and you are alone. You are alone and a piece of you is gone and will never be the same, suddenly you have only yourself to worry about and you once again have your own life, and some of us aren’t really sure what to do at that point, you spend 20 years raising a couple of children and now they are gone and it’s just you. We prepare them for the ultimate journey, but we break a big piece of our heart out and give it to them when they live. Now that I am alone what ever shall I do with my life?

BTW, if you are ever in New Millford, Illinois I would not recommend staying at the New Mill Motel. And if you must bring your own sheets.