Saturday 10 May 2014

Milestone, great daughter...where is life going?

Yesterday, my eldest child was 30.
Had a lovely time with her at breakfast... that's what we do.  
It is often difficult to be present to other people. Particularly those close to you. We should always remember this...the important ones are the ones we have to struggle hardest with.
I did have a list of 'conversation starters'....and we found them vaguely engaging.
"What was your earliest memory?",
"Do you remember Kindy" [
I remember how hard she actually found it... the protected child who had never had to encounter anyone else...]
Yesterday it seemed I was telling her a story she had no idea of but I have always been aware about how much pain parents inflict on their children as we urge them to stand on their feet [she was 4 at Kindy]
"How was school?"  .. I am nothing if not unimaginative!... She told me she found school  difficult I have lived under the misconception that school was sort of OK. Particularly the first couple of years.
She had great teachers. But I got rid of the delusion that the choices we made about education were good probably 15 years ago. All schools are flawed.
She did quite well. School did less well!
It was good to move her to her last school. She gained there a reputation for being assertive, perhaps even offensive (paternal genes!). She is VERY intelligent, in a way that modern society doesn't always appreciate. At her graduation there was huge titter that went across her peers when it was said that she had a reputation for speaking up. [My heart swelled!]
Let me tell you!  She will  never conform!. And I say...Hallelujah!
I remember her birthday...the actual day of her birth.
I had two profound thoughts....My life will never be the same again.  This was overwhelming, spiritual and seminal.
But more importantly, in that first week as I held her, and could just spend hours looking at her. I remember thinking.... this is the most beautiful person I have ever seen. 
She has two rivals, but it still stands.!!

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