Last Thursday, the whole family went out to J's future elementary school to watch him ride his bike. WOW !! Just a few months ago, the training wheels were still tightly secured to the John Deere. When Daddy decided to take them off shorty after that, he was still hanging onto the back while J rode. On this day, he did it all by himself just like a big boy.
And I watched...helmet on, back to me, little legs spinning and spinning as he moved further and further away.
I was filled with pride as I saw him go. The very next second when I felt the tug in my heart, I realized that it was like some crazy metaphor of things to come: Slowly but surely my little boy is growing up. And on the very playground where in a couple of weeks I will drop him off on his first day of Kindergarten, I got my first taste of what letting go feels like. Today it was simply letting go of the back of the bike -- and it wasn't even me who did it, but he was off. Tomorrow he'll be waving to me from the window of the school bus; another day it'll be another milestone and another tug to my heart; we'll continue that way with pride and admiration until we reach that not-so-far-off day when we can no longer hang on and he rides into the sunset of adulthood.
There was no visible sunset that day. All day long it had been overcast and looking like it would rain. Right as we were getting ready to leave the playground, there was a torrential downpour. Just another metaphor for the way I felt.
