Polly Put The Kettle On..... (standard:non fiction, 233 words)
Author: Cyrano	Added: Jan 14 2009	Views/Reads: 3223/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Doesn't it happen in the blink of an eye...

I've spent years telling myself that my children don't ‘belong' to me;
simply that I've been charged with raising them, loving them, preparing 
them for the day they will leave me. In that time I've tried to set 
examples, show them humility and humbleness and direction and I know in 
my heart that sometimes I've been lazy with this, knowing from birth 
that it takes years to lose a child to the world. Then one day it's 
done. Next month my eldest son will lead a medical team into 
Afghanistan. 

Ten months he'll be gone. I'll be left here to pray for him, ten months
in which I will be hoping he's beyond harm.  He just turned forty, but 
I've only just let go of his hand, only just stopped the stern words 
about his school reports, only just explained what took me away all 
those times, when true courage would have been to stay home and love 
him. In ten months he will learn what fear can do to a man, what doubt 
can do for self-confidence. In less than a week I will shake his hand, 
hug him close, kiss him and weep for my son. I will be left to trust in 
him. To feel proud of the man I raised, a man who goes his own way in 
the world, the kind of man I always wanted to be. 


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