Stuff That Matters in Life

I was thinking last night how difficult it is to be a mother.

When your children are little, you are pulled to them by their complete need for you. You have no choice but to care for them 24 hours a day. You hover over them to make sure they are safe, you decide what they eat and what they wear. You clean up their messes out of both ends. Alas, you can’t help but love them completely. You hug them tight smothering them with kisses.

As they grow up, you are suddenly asked to do the opposite. Turn off the 24 hour caring, let them go, don’t tell them what to do, don’t hover over them, don’t smother them.

Is it possible to stop mothering?

But a mother has to be strong and wise. She has to learn to switch gears. She has to have just the right balance of being available but not ask too many questions, be helpful but not controlling, be proud of them but not embarrass them.

It takes great agility to be a mother.

Audrey took this picture in the desert. I thought it is kind of nice.

The time finally came.

We moved Elliot in to the dorms at USC.

We met two brothers rooming together across the hall. Nice boys, one a horn performance major (he talked to Audrey about the program) and the other a math and physics major – maybe a good help to Elliot.

After we took his stuff to his room, we walked around campus a bit, went to the bookstore, and went to the Viterbi School of Engineering for a welcome reception. Good food was served. That reception actually made me feel more comfortable with letting go of Elliot. Although I know the speeches were mostly rhetoric to make parents feel better, they work! They made you feel you are in the best school in the world, and that they have all kinds of services to take care of your son or daughter. They introduced the student services staff, and said the cliche, “We are here for you.” Well, I don’t really believe that, but I am still a sucker for an emotional appeal.

Surprisingly I did not cry! I think I’ve been letting Elliot go for the last six months. I have not been telling him what to do or when to sleep. I tell him to make his own decisions. Since he got his driver’s license, I encourage him to go out on his own.

I miss him, and that reminds me to get a life of my own.

I am also glad USC is only 45 minutes away!

Elliot just came back from hiking Half Dome in Yosemite. He made it to the top.

That is quite a feat for someone who does absolutely no exercise. I mean that literally.
The last time he did anything physical was last summer. He hiked up Mt. Whitney and he made it to the top. He had no exercise before doing that. The last time he did anything physical before that was his first hike up Mt. Whitney the year before, and he made it to the top.
I asked him if he was tired and why he didn’t stop before he reached the top of Half Dome, like a couple of people in the group did. He said he was tired, but he was determined, and didn’t want to come all that way, and not make it to the top.

The power of the mind over the body.
Also he is 17, and when you are 17, your body can take a lot of beating.
I am very proud of him. Wish I was 17…well, no…I wish I have the body of a 17 year old!

Elliot is off to Yosemite with some people from church to hike Half Dome.
Audrey went with some from the Solar Car Team to watch the filming of a Lexus commercial with the solar car, somewhere in the desert near Las Vegas.
Amy and I are home, trying to decide what we should do. We have many hobbies – sewing, scrapbooking, crafts, reading. But we feel rather unmotivated. It’s too quiet.

Sometimes I need some noise and chaos to get my engine fired up to do things.

My friend’s husband is a cancer surviver. The physical scars are “altars to God” that remind her of what God has brought them through. They remind her of what truly matters in life.

When we get caught in the mundane worries of life, think about what God has brought us through. In the end, what really matters?

I have several “altars to God” to bring my focus back to the Stuff That Matters in Life – the title of this blog.

Even scars are beauty in the eyes of the one who has been brought through the experience of pain.

“It used to be only death and taxes were inevitable. Now it’s shipping and handling too. ”

I ordered some pamphlets for $18.99, shipping was another $8.50. Doesn’t seem right to increase the total cost by almost 50%, just for shipping and handling. But I couldn’t find a store near by that had them.

Me: I read the ending of books first; I want to know the ending of a movie before I watch it.
Dave: Is that why you’re a Christian?

I know I will have a good ending…what about you?