Parting

"Parting is such sweet sorrow,"

William Shakespeare

I've traveled to India by myself, backpacked through Europe on my own and enjoyed a solo vacation in Thailand, but today I found it challenging to be only 100 km.'s away from home.  Why?  My three-year-old daughter is sick.  She's not terribly sick.  Her fever broke a couple of days ago and she's sleeping and eating well, but she needs her nose wiped every three seconds, her throat feels "yucky," and her big, blue watery eyes are constantly saying, "make it better Mama." 

My fabulous cousin had invited me to spend the afternoon with her, and my mom offered to watch the girls.  I was only going to be away from about noon to 6pm, but I started to feel a bit uneasy as I got ready to go.  Was I worried that Pip's health would worsen? No.  Did I think the girls were in good hands?  The best.  Did I deserve to go off and have an afternoon to myself?  Of course I did.  Then why was I feeling so emotional about leaving?  I'm a mom; that's why.  And when you're a mom, parting is sometimes difficult.  

I teared up a bit when my mom arrived to babysit.  Pip was clinging to me saying, "Mama, mama."  She wasn't about to make my departure easy for me.  Both my mom and I knew that it would be healthy for me to go; that I would be fine and the girls would be fine and indeed that's what happened.  (In fact, I went on to have a wonderful visit with my cousin, and I got to meet her lovely new man as well!) 

Shakespeare got it right, though, when he called parting, "sweet sorrow."    I'm going to think about his words the next time I have trouble leaving my kids;  how sweet it is that I love these two little beings so much.