Every day that I drop him off at school and I watch as he rounds the corner of the building and disappears down the corridor, my heart swells.

When I k him up and he runs ahead of me on the sidewalk, small shoes crushing Fall’s first fallen orange leaves, the eyes of my mother’s heart sees him growing up up up up up and out of his tiny clothes, bursting, leaving his little self behind. He’s tall and full with his own becoming, shaggy hair drooping over his eyes, grinning with his soft lips.

I want him next to me all the time, us growing alongside one another, mingling dreams. He makes me proud, makes me crazy, makes the tears flow from my eyes like a quiet and sustainable river.

What a roller coaster of bliss and pain, motherhood.