March 2020 Content warning: family conflict, emotional stress, pandemic trauma In March 2020, when the world shut down because of COVID-19, our house went from quiet to crowded almost overnight. For the first time in years, all of our children were back under the same roof. What should have felt comforting instead felt suffocating. One daughter was already home, our son returned abruptly after offices closed, and our youngest came home from New York City, carrying the trauma of three and a half years of life in a city under siege. She quarantined herself, withdrawn and fragile, and even simple acts of closeness, like a hug, were impossible. The very real fear and stress of the pandemic created an invisible wall between us. With five adults in one house, we divided the rooms like territories, each person carving out their own space to work, sleep, and cope. Physically together, but emotionally distant, our interactions became fragmented. Doors that used to be open stayed shut, a...
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams