See you again soon!

When you ask people about their favorite books, you’ll get a lot of votes for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy; and many others. Many folks often point to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling or The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I have my own favorites, but high on the list are two books that some might be surprised to see, but I’ll take children’s illustrator and author Sandra Boynton’s The Going to Bed Book and the Barnyard dance! against anything else you could read. They’re lovable tales wrapped up in a tidy 16 and 24 pages respectively.

Bow to the horse.
Bow to the cow.
Twirl with the pig if you know how.

When my kids were just toddlers, they loved Boynton’s illustrations and funny rhymes, but I got the most out of the books. I danced and sang to the songs and laughed at my own silly jokes. The books brought me back from the ledge, reminding me that I needed a career and a paycheck to help provide for my family, but work didn’t own me, work life balance was important too.

Pertinent to 2024

I thought about Boynton’s books this week, because she had a New Year’s illustration that hit home with me. It’s a picture of a hippo hiding underneath his or her bed, holding tight to a teddy bear. There’s a 2024 New Year’s Eve sign and party hat on top of the bed and the caption in the picture reads: “Happy New Year wherever you may be.”

I can’t think of a better picture to sum up my mood. Oh, I’m excited for the new year. I have so many different things going on, I can’t wait to see what the year brings. However, I’m hiding under the proverbial bed right now, because we had to say our goodbyes this week to our ragtag crew, with each going their separate ways, first one, then another, and finally our youngest.

Saying goodbye is hard

I find that I write a lot about goodbyes and I’m sorry for that, I’m sure as a reader it gets to be an ad nauseam topic. I’m getting smarter though. Of course this time around, I forbid (forbid vs. forbade?) them to leave the house and they laughed at me. How dare them? I brought them up better than that. I forbid them again and they told me the joke was getting old. Okay, okay, I know when I’ve lost and, if I’m really honest with you, I’m thrilled to see them flying off on their own, doing their own thing, but I’ve noticed a few Boynton like patterns. Let me know if you’ve experienced any of these crazy animal-like behaviors as well:

–When we drop one of the kids off at the train station or airport, we give them a long hug, maybe take one last family selfie, and watch them walk away. When my wife and I get in the car, I’ll inevitably ask her, “they’re good, right?” I’m not sure what I’m worried about in the moment —that they’ll get eaten alive by a roaming Tyrannosaurus rex, you know how crazy they can be when they haven’t had their morning coffee yet, or that that they’ll turn back into ten year old’s crying out for their daddy? Um, hello, we just spent a week together, but I still need my wife’s assurances that they’re grown adults and will be fine. I suspect I’m asking my wife if “I’m going to be alright?”! Geesh! Grow up Brian!

–We’ll text the child who has just left repeatedly for the first eight hours. Did you make your plane? Did you eat? Did you sleep? They’re adults and we’re pinging them with texts like they’re a kid. It’s almost like old habits die hard and we need to turn back the clock to when they were 15.

–We’ll miss them, but slowly we’ll start to realize that we’re empty nesters again and have the world at our fingertips. Did you know that there’s this really cool thing called the internet and you can map out your trips and come up with some really great ideas? Wow! We may not ever leave the comforts of our house, but it’s like we need to take our newfound freedom for a spin by planning our next escape. Hawaii, anyone? London? Paris?

Oh, I miss my kids, but I pick up one of Boynton’s books and I’m reminded that love is love and will not abandon us when we need it most.

See ya soon!