#SOL18: Motherhood

The Familiar Falling Away (M.A. Reilly, 2011)

Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. - Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost (p. 22). 

I.

For each easyspace, I have occupied and forward movement felt--grief nonetheless reasserts itself and some days, even two years after, I stumble.  Life after Rob feels cumbersome. The starkest difference between life prior to Rob's death and now is that living life then was effortless. I had no idea.

Loss continues to open me to new understandings. Now, unmoored, life requires a level of attention I did not need before, revealing the unfamiliar--especially of parenting.

II.

The image that tops this post is one I made of Devon running on a day we ditched school and work and I made images of Devon playing in the state park nearby. It was one of those fabulous fog days.

"What do you want me to do?" my son asked.
"Just take off and run. Here, take the umbrella."
"Okay."

Coming through the Rye (M.A. Reilly, 2011)

I did not know that day would later be a placeholder for the intangible time that rises between a son and his mother. Rob had gone to work that morning and Devon and I had gone to play.  I tell you now years later, I am so grateful for all that the image reminds me of and the place viewing it opens.

That was day about love. I did not know that then.

Later, we would return to another field. That evening I would lift my camera and see my son running through the field. Click.

So much more was captured then.


III.

Being a single mom now is stressful and at times, tender. Without Rob to talk through situations, I find myself acknowledging the limitations of being a mom.  There's so much that exceeds my grasp.

This past week my son turned 19. In a few weeks he'll be off to Europe where he so wants to live. I wonder what Rob would have to say about all this? What words might he offer? What perspective would he share? The familiar stance of mother-son has slipped as Devon has aged. What is emerging? Somedays I wonder where we have gone. 

What remains regardless of all of the doubt and worry, tenderness and talk is love. 

Read Alouds Focusing on Change for Intermediate Grades

Recommended read aloud books focusing on change.

• Chin, Jason. (2012). Island: A Story of the Galápagos. New York: Roaring Brook Press. 
• Fox, Karen C. 2011. Older Than the Stars. Illustrated by Nancy Davis. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing.
• Gibbons, Alan. (2008). Lifeline: Charles Darwin. Illustrated by Leo Brown. New York: Henry Holt. Hoberman, Mary Ann & Linda Winston. (2009). The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination. Illustrated by Barbara Fortin. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky.
• Kelsey, Elin. (2012). You Are Stardust. Illustrated by Soyeon Kim.  Toronto, ON: Owl Kids Books.
• Lasky, Kathryn. (2009). One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin. Illustrated by Matthew Trueman. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.  
• Loxton, Daniel. (2010). Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be. Tonawanda, NY: Kids Can Press. 
• Lourie, Peter. 2009. Whaling Season: A Year in the Life of an Arctic Whale Scientist. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• McGinty, Alice B. (2009). Darwin: With Glimpses into His Private Journal & Letters. Illustrated by Mary Azarian. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.  
• Nivola, Claire A. (2008). Planting the Trees of Kenya. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 
• Pinkney, Andrea. (2012).  Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney.  New York: Hyperion.
• Pringle, Lawrence. (2011). Billions of Years Ago Amazing Changes: The Story of Evolution. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press. 
• Rubino, Michael. (2011). Bang! How We Came to Be. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
• Sidman, Joyce. (2010). Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors. Illustrated by  Becky Prange. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• Sis, Peter. (2003). The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin. New York: Farrar, Straus & Griroux.
• Weaver, Anne H. (2007). The Voyage of the Beetle. Illustrated by George Lawrence. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
• Wood, A.J. and Clint Twist. (2009). Charles Darwin and the Beagle Adventure. Templar.

Myth

• Clayton, Sally Pomme. (2009). Persephone. Illustrated by Virginia Lee. Grand Rapids, MI: Eederman’s Books. 
• Geringer, Laura. (1995). The Pomegranate Seeds. Illustrated by Leonid Gore. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children.
• Lumbard, Alexis York. (2012). The Conference of the Birds. Illustrated by Demi. Bloomington, IN: Wisdom Tales.
• Sis, Peter. (2011).  The Conference of the Birds. New York: Farrar, Straus & Griroux.