Slip Sliding Away

"Slip sliding away. Slip sliding away. You know the nearer your destination, the more you're slip sliding away." Simon and Garfunkle

 For the past couple of years, I have felt like my daughter has been slipping away from me. It has been a heavy stone in my soul, often leaving me feeling terribly alone. It started in her senior year of high school. She did a good job of pushing all but a few close friends away. It was her way of preparing to leave home and become an adult. It was a difficult time for both of us. At times she reminded me of her two year old self, stamping her food and declaring "me do it myself!" What could I do. I have to allow her to make her own mistakes. But I knew that she was making a mistake. She got her heart set on attending an out of state school.  She turned down two or three full ride scholarships to do it. Then last year that dream washed away when the student loans were slow to be received by the university and she was sent home. She was hurt and angry and she used that anger to further push me away. And she made a few more regrettable mistakes. It's been hard to watch. But not everything she has done has been a mistake. She did decide to get back on track at school. She applied to one of the universities that I had begged her to consider. She's there now and seems to finally have found her footing. But the nice thing is that she has started to reverse the sliding away. It started when she asked if we could get together once a week for dinner. That was unexpected. It was down right nice. Then she wanted to come to the Fall Festival at church. Everyone was glad to see her. After that she spent most of Thanksgiving weekend with me, and that was a gift. Then last weekend she came home for the family tradition of going to the local parades and the Bethlehem Walk with me. That was a great weekend. Yesterday she asked if she could go to the church Ministry Leaders Dinner with me. She has always refused to go with me to that. I am excited. In two weeks we will meet up with Matt and Nina and the boys for Christmas. And the following weekend we will spend some time at Tim and Jenn's for the New Year. Suddenly I seem to have lost that stone. I'm so glad it's gone.