There are landmines hidden in my days. I never know when I
might step into one.
I’m happily putzing along doing my thing – picking up the
socks left under the coffee table, making yet another pot of tea instead of
writing something, or wiping down the counter– when a thought floats through my
mind, “This time next year, Brady will be gone.” I’m overcome, and have to sit
down on the couch with his dirty socks in hand.
I find his socks all over the house (and a few on the porch,
in the driveway, and of late – in the car). He has hot feet and has always had a
horrible habit of removing his socks and abandoning them wherever he happens to
be at the time, which is rarely his room and even more rarely the laundry room.
He’s been doing this for 18 years, ever since I first covered his precious tiny
toes with socks too small for my own thumb.
Somehow, he grew up. I wasn’t prepared for this.
All these years I’ve worked hard to raise a capable child –
one that can cook a meal, pack a lunch, use his manners, put gas in the car,
clean a bathroom, and be responsible for his own decisions (but not,
apparently, his own socks).
The problem with this goal is, that once I’ve accomplished
it – he leaves. And that is painful.
