How Would YOU Handle This?

This isn't about music. not the kind you can hear anyway. But certainly the kind that rings in the heart at all times when you love someone.

My son and his wife are heading off to Africa on September 15. For two years. Their mission is to help underprivileged and under experienced villagers learn how to become more self sustaining. At the end of the two years, my son says he'll know he's been successful if he's no longer needed.

I wrote a piece for my work newsletter about how my son is my hero.

But think about it, especially any of you who have dearly beloved kids who have come of age. Or even if that stage lies away in the future still. My child will be heading off to a country that, for the time being is enjoying relative peace. (Uganda)

But the mind of a parent plays funny tricks, and it really doesn't matter that there's "relative peace." Our friends boy has been in Afghanistan for 6 months and has so far avoided getting seriously injured. He'll be home next month.

It's not so much the possibility of danger, I suppose, but more the absence, which supposedly makes the heart grow fonder. 'Cept I don't think it could get much fonder.

So we wait, and carry on in the days leading up to their leaving as if all is normal. And thank goodness for Skype and web cams, which will help us maintain that illusion while they're gone.

We're very proud, and that keeps the fears at bay as well.

But like all things that are good for you, it takes discipline to maintain the proper perspective.

And in two years we will be reunited as a family again.

Thanks for indulging me.