TheBanyanTree: a miilion ways

[Julie Anna Teague]

There are a million ways to break a mother's heart.  One way is to send 
a text message, three days after you have moved into your first place 
away from home, that says, "Reeeally miss that home cooking about now!" 
  I picture my almost 21 year old son--in whom I have tried to 
inculcate some basic cooking skills and nutritional knowledge--coming 
home from his really hard summer landscaping job hot and exhausted and 
without a clue (despite everything) where to start in on preparing a 
good dinner for himself, and thus wasting away.  Maybe missing his 
mother a little, too.  Maybe.  I asked him what was for dinner at his 
place and he told me quesadillas, which is the one thing he makes well 
but with alarming frequency, and he doesn't take the time to make a 
fresh salsa with lots of veggies to go on top like I do.  I told him he 
could come for dinner any time he wanted.  And that I miss his smile.  
He texted back, "I miss your's too."  And thus begins our adventure on 
becoming a mother who learns how to give space for growth, and a man 
who learns how to live on his own.  He's only fifteen minutes away.  
We'll both survive.  But there is going to be some heartache for 
awhile, I'm telling you.  My heart physically hurts a little since a 
big piece of it shoved off and moved across town, and my eyes have been 
springing leaks in my more contemplative moments.

Julie