Soundtrack of my life: Changes

He's off on a great adventure.
Change is in the wind for the Gunnels clan. And with it comes a baffling mixture of pride and joy, sadness and uncertainty.

My beloved daughter is now married and embarked on a life with the man she has known and loved since college. She is happy, harried and hopeful. All the things a new bride should be. Her parents are comforted, conflicted and confident. Nothing unusual about that, either.

And now my youngest, my steady and stalwart son, tells us he is moving to Seattle. He and his girlfriend, who his mother and I adore and endorse, will be gone by Thanksgiving – her to a great new job and he on the great adventure he has dreamed about since graduating from college.

His job, at which he has excelled in an unexpected but immensely satisfying manner, will follow him to the Pacific Northwest. They are ecstatic and – although they are loathe to admit it – a bit intimidated by the prospect of leaving friends and family behind them. But that’s all part of the adventure, right?

His mother is handling this shift in the fabric of the cosmos better than his father. She’s already planning trips to visit him, and her delighted anticipation is rather annoying. I am incredibly proud of him – I always have been, even when he teetered on the brink of disaster – and I know the two of them will thrive in their new life.

But as the winds of change buffet the tiny sailboat of my life, I admit it all makes me a little seasick. Marice and I have been luckier than many at having our grown children close at hand since they moved out of the house. Now, that’s about to change, and I’m struggling to feel OK about it.

I was sitting on my patio yesterday, feeling grumpy and heartsick, when what should pop up on Pandora but "Father and Son" by Cat Stevens (he’ll never be Yusuf to me). A message from the universe? Mere coincidence?

The father says:

It's not time to make a change.

Just relax, take it easy.

You're still young, that's your fault.

There's so much you have to know.

Find a girl, settle down

If you want you can marry.

Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.

The son replies:

All the times that I cried

Keeping all the things I knew inside.

It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it.

If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them they know not me.

Now there's a way, and I know that I have to go away.

I know I have to go.

 Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father & Son - Bing video