Like Mother Like Daughter

Mera is blogging! She is off to Columbia for a year abroad and now sharing those experiences on her blog. Her most recent post made my heart sing... not the topic but the style, the emotional context, the ability to honestly feel her struggle. 

A long long time ago my very good friend Julie said something that made me forever rethink parenting. Paraphrasing, she said, "Parents can't be 'proud' of their children as that would mean they own their children's accomplishments." I sometimes wonder now that her son is approaching adulthood if she still feels that way. It's so damn hard not to feel an echo of yourself and your work in the achievements of your offspring. Similarly, their struggles and failures prey on you as a parental failure.

So I won't... can't... say I'm proud of Mera any more than I'm proud of Jaime or Aeron. Even though, yeah I am. I am so f*ing proud of all three of them. Holy gods it fills me up. And then a moment like this comes when I read the words of my clever girl and I can literally feel the puffery in my chest and the beginnings of tears and the big shit eating, o-my-kids-are-the-best grin. 

Anyway... go check it out. http://meraconger.weebly.com/blog/tranquila-mera