Bill and I rented DVDs this week of a television program called In Treatment. It's about a therapist and his patients. One after another they come in and explore the issues that brought them to therapy. It's very intimate, almost voyeuristic.
After watching several episodes yesterday I started to realize that every patient was dealing in some way with the same issue. They were each struggling with issues of separation and individuation between themselves and their parents and/or themselves and their children.
Suddenly I found myself sobbing as I realized how painful it has been for me to separate from my own child. She is in her 20's now. My job as a parent is largely over. There are no more do-overs. What it was is what it is. It's time to let go.
I remember being on the other side of this process when I was in my 20's. I moved across the country, in part to establish my own life, separate from my mother. I never thought about how painful that must have been for her. Life has a funny way of coming full circle.
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