Gifts

I made it through the first week of classes. I didn't doubt that I would, really, but it's been a tough week. I've been running on not-enough-sleep, and I tend to forget, over the summer, just how much hard work it is to stand up in front of classes again. I also have a head cold. Despite all this, it doesn't take long for me to remember how much I love this time of the year. I love walking across campus and seeing old and familiar faces--students from this past summer, and from semesters ago, too. I love to hear them call my name (I love that they still remember my name!), and I love to walk into a classroom at the start of the year and feel all the potential around me, radiating from the young men and women who have made it here, to college, to this big, wide open, one-of-a-kind adventure. And I get to be a small part of it--that's the best part of all. ************** My parents are in town. They arrived Wednesday afternoon and they're providing invaluable help to us by spending time with T. while we work. I remember talking years ago to a friend, a working mother of three. Her mom was heading into town to help watch her children for a whole week, while they juggled child-care issues, and training seminars. "Do you know what's the greatest gift a mother can give her grown-up daughter?" my friend asked me. "It's the gift of being there to help out in times like this, so the daughter doesn't have to bear the weight of guilt, and the pain of difficult choices." Of course this would be a gift to sons, too, but I know that too often it's the daughters--now turned mothers--who bear the burden of guilt when it comes to juggling work and children; the daughters who are often the ones forced to make difficult choices. So, thank you mom (and dad!) for this gift--for making life easier this week. Happy weekend!