Off to school, we go

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Daniel has started Kindergarten, and Naomi is getting ready to join preschool this year. It is hard to explain the huge sense of anticipation and nervous excitement one feels when the kids walk into their classrooms. 

Part of me wants to rush and take them back home when I see the anxiety in their eyes, and I remind myself that this is just the beginning of a long, sometimes arduous journey in education. 

And, then there's this other part of me that wants to joyfully leap in the air, because I get a few hours to myself - to do what I want.  

As parents, we feel that overwhelming sense of pride as the kids learn to be independent. As their minds grow to absorb all that is being taught. As they learn that they perhaps are not the center of the universe, like they once imagined. As they take those baby steps away from you - the watchful and sometimes hovering parent.

They are out of the safety and security of their nest. But, I would hope that they know that they are so loved and special, and we hold them in our hearts, wherever they go.

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop" - Confucius

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