Tomorrow

 

Tomorrow, our son, Ethan, graduates high school.  The deeper truth is, that as parents, we are graduating too.  There is a new chapter both for Ethan and for us.  His chapter holds being a camp counselor and getting ready for college in a few months.  His chapter has plot points of new friendships that will form in the days to come, even as he continues friendships with those he has known for years.  His chapter looks toward crafting and creating life with God who is co-authoring with him.  Honestly, neither he nor we, as his parents, have any idea of all the other fish (experiences and encounters and events) that will get caught in the net of his life in the coming years.  For Gina and me, our chapter is about change where Ethan’s energy isn’t always present in the house and his voice won’t be there each night at the dinner table.  For Gina and me, our chapter is about new schedules that we can create without first consulting the school calendar.  For Gina and me, we also are graduating to a new way of being.  We rejoice with Ethan on this accomplishment and will cheer on his growth in the years to come.  We will continue to walk with Olivia into her senior year in the fall.  But, on the horizon, there is a change ~ which is why I offered you the quote from Joan Chittister yesterday.  Change, Chittister wrote, “demands that we be willing to believe that where we find ourselves now, bad as it may seem, must be at least as good – at least, eventually, as where we ourselves wanted to be.”  When we welcomed Ethan into our arms, our home, and especially our hearts eighteen years ago, we knew this day would come.  Part of the journey of parenting is that one day there is an empty nest.  Tomorrow is a moment when the past, present, and future all come together.  Tomorrow some things will end, some new ways begin, and other realities will continue.  After all we will still be Ethan’s parents.  We will still treasure memories of holding him as an infant, how he broke through every childhood lock we could buy for the kitchen, telling the story about the time in a basketball game he threw the ball through the bottom of the net and it came back down through the rim (the point counted by the way), when he discovered music as filling his soul, and celebrate how the ways he is shining his light as a young man in the words.  Endings and beginning and continued threads are woven together.  Tomorrow, we hold this holy moment, realizing all moments are holy.  There is more to unfold in the coming days.  Tomorrow, we will celebrate, shed tears, and know that this moment God is there remembering, blessings, and holding us in love.  I welcome your prayers as our family graduates, trusting God’s presence will be there with us.  Amen.