My son is recovering from a dance injury that resulted in a severely broken ankle, major surgery, and he cannot discuss putting weight on it for at least another five weeks. I’m sure others wondered how I could leave him at all (sans injury).
Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but here’s the discussion I had with my son before I left.
- I want to show my son what it looks like for a mother to follow her dreams and make them come true.
- I want him to see pure passion in action.
- I want him to see me lit up.
- I want him to see me light other people up.
- I want him to see me enjoying myself and truly living life to the edge of reason and beyond sometimes.
- I want him to see what it looks like to try new things (and sometimes fail, because we all do) and get back up time and time again—because we must.
- I want him to see persistence in action and to know that it pays off.
- I want him to see there’s more to life than following other people’s rules, but making your own rules because that’s way more fun.
- I want him to see kindness in action and know it’s ok to talk to strangers and make friends with people you meet on the internet, or in passing.
- I want him to see online connections in real life and know they are real and you can trust in them.
- I want him to know you can trust people and not be scared of taking risks.
- Although the world can be scary at times, there is good in the world and the more people that believe that and more importantly show that, the better off this world will be.
- I want my son to explore the world, meet new people, skill share with those he meets, and collaborate to come up with ways to do new things or do old things in new ways.
- I want my son to learn more about who he is able to fully trust in his abilities and rely fully on his intuition.
- The best and most important reason why I’m totally ok with leaving my son in his current condition is the same reason he was ok leaving me in my condition when he left three years ago—I got well when he was gone. Oddly, I also developed two debilitating chronic illnesses at the same time. However, because I didn’t have anyone to take care of but me, I also faced the fact that it was time to take the best possible care of myself. That’s exactly what I did while he was gone and my life has improved 100 fold because of it. Because our children are our mirrors, my son’s life has improved thanks to my recovery as well.
I have absolute faith that my son will take complete and total care of himself and recover fully from his injury. I pray he will join me in California when he’s ready if he chooses. He is a grown man who is capable of caring for his needs and make his own choices.
As I stated in a recent article, his mama is only one call away. I have no doubt we will actually talk more when I’m away than when we lived together and I’m looking forward to it.
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