I started Cindy Rollins’ new book Mere Motherhood a couple of weeks ago, but hadn’t got far until today, when I burned my way from about chapter 3 to the end. It’s too soon for me to articulate all my thoughts on it, except to say that I’ll be giving my mom a copy to read and share with my sisters – it’s the kind of book that both new mothers and empty-nesters can appreciate. Here is a passage that particularly resonated with me as I enter the season of “letting go” of my eldest:
I am a mother at heart. I build a home, which seems like a place to stay, but really, it is a place to leave. That is the way of it. Children are meant to grow up. I understand that now. Maybe you have yet to come face-to-face with what that means. I hope you will take courage and allow your children to walk away with grace.
Also read/listened to this week:
- Hubby: started Dickens’ Bleak House for the second time, this time on audiobook
- Me: finished Fearfully and Wonderfully Made – challenging and thought-provoking but difficult for the faint-of-heart (which I am), especially the last chapter!
- Miss A: also listening to Bleak House 🙂
- Mr. D: Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain – his summer break read
- Mr. E: A Little Book of Sloth by Lucy Cooke (for Latin America week)
- Little L: James Marshall’s version of The Three Little Pigs – fun! 😀
- Little R: Curious George Flies a Kite from The Complete Adventures of Curious George by Margret and H. A. Rey
Find more words at:
I love the quote , Anna. Home is a place to leave,yes, but it is also a place to come back to , on occasion, and, quite possibly, with more little ones, too, eventually. So the joy continues and multiplies.
A cross-stitch that I did 35 years ago as a gift to my parents, but which now hangs in my home, includes these words:
Home
that our feet may leave
but never our hearts