Solo Swimming in the Big Pool.

A week ago my little Max took a literal leap away from me and into the big pool all by himself.  Yes, there was an instructor catching him, but hopefully you get my point.  As I stood watching him in his very first Super Pike swimming class (he tested right out of Pike, my little fish) I was overwhelmed with emotion.  I looked beyond him and saw the parent-child class that we had been in just a few weeks earlier and I couldn't believe how time has flown by.  Weeks pass like days and my littlest one, after just under three years of lessons with mom, has now flown the aquatic nest.  

I expected tears when I left him with his teacher and I got them, not from him, he was all smiles, no they came from me.  At first I was surprised as the almost subconscious emotions caused my eyes to water and then spill over my cheeks.  However  I soon realized, that this is was the faithful and all too familiar feeling of letting go.   Flashes of the past began to cross my mind; first days of pre-school and then kindergarten that have morphed into sobbing in an airport terminal.  There is nothing quite like the heartbreak of letting your babies go. 

I'm confident the ensuing good-byes won't get any easier, time and experience has proven as much.  None the less, today during swimming when Max's eyes met mine, as his smile grew bigger and he waved a big ol' wave, I realized something... That the sweet moments that lead up to those emotional cross-roads and the love that then is carried beyond them, is what makes this crazy life all worth while.