Abby's Last Day

The girls and I take a music class at Music Together. For more sessions than I can remember, we've had the same beautiful teacher, Abby. We take our class with several families that we know and care deeply about. We love every minute of it. So you can imagine our dismay when we found out that our sweet Abby is going off to grad school in the fall.







We are so very pleased for Abby. And so very, very sad for us. Even though we weren't in session for the summer, we crashed what would have been our last class so that we could celebrate with her and enjoy one more sweet moment in her fairy-good, better-than-peanut-butter presence.












We danced and sang and giggled and wiggled.












We drummed and hummed and we grinned until it hurt.











And when it was time to sing goodbye, none of us made it through the song. There was not a dry eye in the room. Except, of course, for the children, who just couldn't quite grasp it all.











But for the adults, who understood the gravity of this last class together, it was bittersweet (as it always is with such things). And it occurred to me that this parenting thing is always becoming more complex than I thought it was just a moment ago. It is a series of new experiences that are so intriguing and fun. At the same time, it is a long string of goodbyes as we all grow and pass through time together, each of us touching on what we need and moving past what is no longer for us. The blessing is that we keep finding such beauty in our experiences and such amazing people with which to share them. The sadness is in the passing on of those times and people that we wish would linger just a bit longer. So we will stop for a moment and remember what we were given.






Then we will find gratitude, shed a tear and share a hug. And we'll remember that life is such bliss. May we walk it with grace and more love than we know what to do with.