Haiku Monday has arrived and resist is the theme. In light of my weekend, I submit three Haikus on children moving out and neighbors who decorate their houses for Christmas before Thanksgiving.
Resist
Stop. Hold back. Ban tears.
The other coast is not world’s end.
Youngest son moves out.
The only reason
A puppy sounds appealing
Now. Is empty nest.
Christmas before Thanksgiving.
Wrong so many ways.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 (KJV)
Thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind. Besides the annual celebration of gluttony and excess, we had adopted daughter and her boyfriend home, a wedding shower for youngest son’s fiancée, and youngest son’s move into their apartment in St. Augustine. To top it all off, my internal seasonal clock starts twanging at midnight on Thanksgiving with an urge I cannot contain to put up Christmas decorations. It is hard enough to resist keeping up with the neighbors who decorate for Christmas as soon as the Halloween pumpkins go in the trash. I just cannot mix Thanksgiving and Christmas and take a chance of ignoring the one day a year set aside to be grateful for what we have before going out the next day to buy more. On Friday, adopted daughter, her boyfriend and I did some sightseeing in our town. I wanted her to see the new Riverwalk, a one and a half mile linear park along the Manatee River that is fabulous and has us all talking about the public art, recreational amenities and scenic walkways. They were suitably impressed, so I took them to lunch and then, to the beach. They left early Saturday morning and a few hours later, we packed two pickup trucks with a bed, two dressers, television and stand, dinette and four chairs and most of youngest son’s worldly possessions including his bike and his kayak and took off for St. Augustine. Everyone was a little crabby for a variety of reasons. Youngest son because he was leaving home for the first time, husband because no one was moving fast enough for him, me because youngest son left a mess behind and oldest son because he had to get out of bed. The only one really happy was youngest son’s fiancée who kept asking him, “Aren’t you excited?” To which he replied, “I am poor.” Yes, the two of them will be living on love for a while despite the cooler full of frozen casseroles I packed and the Wal-Mart gift card I left them. They do not even have enough money to get cable television or Internet. Just like living in pioneer days. Their apartment is in a good location right across the street from the water and near hiking trails. It was truly a miracle the way they found it, and I know it will be perfect for them even though they do not have an oven. Like I said, pioneer days. I wanted to stay and help them put all their things away, but after making the bed and putting up the shower curtain, I had a flashback to moving into our first house when my mother in law, mother and sister in law all came to help, and I kept thinking, I wish they would just go away and let me think. So, I announced that it was time to take the kids to dinner and then, we would leave. I was surprised how very sad I was leaving him in St. Augustine. I really expected to feel only relief not sorrow. I made myself feel better by going home and decorating for Christmas and putting a deposit on a puppy, a cousin of youngest son’s Summer who will also be moving to St. Augustine in January. Youngest son is leaving and cleaving but that doesn’t make it any easier on mom when her baby moves out of the house.
Hello and welcome to Haiku Monday! I'm glad you stopped by with such terrific submissions–so many of my friends are sending children off to college. Bittersweet times, for sure.
Ahhh, I know this feeling. I experienced the angst of separation the first day Mermaid went to preschool for three never ending hours. When she and the horses left for college 3 states and 500 miles away I thought I would perish. The eventual realization she would never come home again to be part of our daily lives was difficult to accept. But guess what? We accept and adapt when we know our children are thriving.
Your story sounds like the Sonny and Cher song….I got you Babe. I think youthful marriages which start in poverty reinforce the leaving and cleaving as God intended. Blessings on them!
We Fishy's are coming to the very Riverwalk you mention here! A friend from Mermaids childhood is having a Winter wedding there. We are staying on the riverfront, not on the beach, because the after wedding bash is being held at the Palmetto Riverside Bed and Breakfast. We are all looking forward to experiencing the changes
along the Manatee since we left for the Carolinas.
Happy Monday …what kind of puppy?