Eli started high school today. I walked to the bus stop with him. Because I wanted to, not because he needed me to. This is how it goes. Each milestone a little different. A little more profound. For weeks I have been imagining him in high school. Walking the halls. Figuring things out. Finding his people. Being himself and changing his people for good. His people being themselves and changing him for good. What a great, fun, exciting, anxious, scary, important time. He stepped onto the bus and into another world.

I walked back up the hill and into another world of my own. As I walked up the hill listening to the birds and to Simone calling down from the deck, it hit me. This is the home-base Eli will return to. But it is not where he will live. He will live “out there”. He will come back to here. Where the birds chirp and the dog greets and the little sister hugs. Where he can recharge, recuperate, gather some guidance and advice (to be used or not), rest. This is the place he will be anxious to leave once he is finished recharging. And anxious to return to when he gets homesick or just needs some home-love. It is also the place that his family will sit and miss him and wonder what he is up to. And the place where we will encourage him to get back out there to experience and influence the world and the people in it.