Child Proof

Nothing changes us and those around us as much as having children.

This past weekend at the wedding of a dear friend's daughter, I reflected on my friends who have become parents. Life's entire focus shifts, priorities change drastically, time evaporates. Those who become really good parents see
the world in different terms - they open their hearts to this new life and would willingly exchange their's to protect it.
Those of who have chosen not to have children have no choice but to adapt and accept that the friendship will be altered forever, no matter how close it might have been. If we are fortunate and choose to work at it, it will be altered for the better.

Most things about having children are beyond my grasp. I think I am, by nature, too selfish to be a parent. I made the choice very early in life and have never regretted it but I confess that I'm sometimes curious. Watching parents interact with each other and their children is fascinating and becomes more so as the children grow and change.
Everything is connected yet stands alone. Good parents never stop being parents and bad ones never begin. At the wedding there were new friends and old friends who had watched her grow up, watched her go from childrens birthday parties at the lake to a candlelight wedding service and all the days in between. I had to smile remembering my own wedding - my mother had concealed an onion in her handkerchief. She wanted to be able to cry at the appropriate times. Though furious and ashamed at the time, I've come to see the humor of standing on the church steps with fall and the scent of onion in the air.

Good parents let their children go but they never really let go of them. You just can't child proof parents who love you.