This past weekend we took our daughter to college. Leading up to move in days I would find myself overwhelmed with emotions and knew that I would spend the last moments of goodbyes drowning in my tears. The night before - I laid awake in those lonely hours between morning and night thinking about what I still had to say. Had I forgotten anything during the past 17 years – there is still less than 13 hours left! The moment to say good bye finally arrived and while staring in my beautiful daughter's eyes through a mist of tears – I did not break down and cry, I just held her and told her how proud I am of her. Her eyes glistened with tears waiting to shed, but the smile on her face said I am happy and Mom I will be OK.
I am now home and I miss her. The nest is truly empty, but it is the emptiness in my chest that hurts the most. No more good night kisses for awhile, no more missing dishes later found in obscure places in her room. The electric bill will only need one stamp and I will get to choose what station to play on my car radio. Who will now tell me when I am not saying something right, wearing the wrong outfit. And how will I Text – sorry TXT? Who will be there to guide me with my computer woes… “Mom there is no ANY key on the computer. Just press ANY key!” I am so confused.
But even though she is not at home, I am still her Mom; maybe not to a baby girl or to a teenager, but to a young lady - a young lady who understands how to do her laundry or at least knows how to get it ALL back in her suitcase for a holiday visit. My young lady of a daughter knows to focus on the quality of food and not just quantity. As I left her, I heard one of her suite-mates saying, “let’s go to CVS for some Cheese-its.” That night when I asked what was for dinner? The answer - Cheese-its. I hope she read the package. I have never had them, so I am not too sure what is in the ingredients - hydrogenated oils? High fructose corn syrup? Cheese? Maybe just one night it is OK, but over time I hope she and her generation research and see the correlation between obesity, type 2 diabetes and when our society started using high fructose corn syrup in our foods. I hope over the years in school she will have chance to study aboard in Europe and while there question why the European government will not allow the same soft drinks we sell to be sold in Europe with high fructose corn syrup. My daughter and her friends are part of a remarkable and brilliant generation - a generation that supports recycling and fear that they will have to clean up the planet because of carelessness and the love of excess from my generation. But I also hope this generation - and mine- will look at the labels, as we sort our trash, and not just focus on what we put in the recycle box, but what we are putting in our bodies and on our skin. I hope my daughter and friends seek to understand if there is any relationship between such things as anti-perspirant in the deodorants and breast cancer. I hope this generation of ladies; will not be like so many from my generation who question the use of anti perspirants after they have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
As you read this brief note you may wonder what does this have to do with natural skin care. Nothing! It is just a note from a mother who is now facing life as an empty nester and a mother who just so happens to believe in Natural Skin Care.
No comments:
Post a Comment