Quilly's Writing Assignment #2

Quilldancing Assignment #2

February is the month of love. Your prompt required only that you write a love story. Fashion it as you will, and remember there are many kinds of love

Loving Them Enough

Before he was born, the mom taught the big sister that her little brother would need lots of love and attention but that he would grow up to be her very best friend. Nervously, she wondered whether she could foster a home in which that might be true. They were only 2½ years apart – would it be close enough together but far enough apart?

Before he could even talk, the sister had taken charge.  They played games they made up which had elaborate rules. Their language was sprinkled with their own names for things.  They created songs only they understood.  They laughed together and rarely disagreed. One day the mom realized they had a relationship with each other that was entirely separate from her. They don’t need me to have fun, she realized with a pang.

As they got a little older, friends and activities frequently separated them from one another, and a little distance grew between them.  The mom saw this, and cut back on outside things and allowed them to have more unstructured time together.  During the summers, she did not put them in activities where they would be separated by age, but instead took them to museums and libraries and nature centers. When the family traveled, the bond between the two children emerged as strong as it had been when they were little.

They stayed close until the early teen years when the sister became a teen.  Trying to stay close to her, the brother ended up being the target of her rages.  The mom saw the hurt in his eyes, and counseled him to just keep loving his sister. Then she went to her daughter and tried to help her understand the level of hurt she was inflicting on her biggest fan – and that she would regret it one day. The mom mourned the loss of their bond, and prayed for it to be restored.

Then a miracle happened, and not only did the sister become loving and kind again but the brother forgave the hurts of those years.  They began to share the ‘remember whens’ of childhood with their parents and the mom was amazed. She had always understood they had a special bond, but the shared memories told her that their relationship was intact, and they would go forward into adulthood with their best friend squarely on their team, cheering one another on, and picking each other up when they fell.

As a mother, I have discovered that in leaving me, my children move into the roles and relationships that God has for them. That pang that I felt so long ago has resolved into joy and gratitude. Letting them go is loving them completely. I am so enjoying these last couple of years they have at home together. When I hear them downstairs laughing together and playing a game or watching a show, my smile starts inside my heart and bursts out on my face. Thank you, God.