Letting Go
If there is one thing being a parent of a kid with severe disabilities has taught me, it is "letting go." Plans, preconceptions, projections...all useless. I have heard children referred to as little zen masters by various new age parenting gurus...I wonder what they would make of my boy? The child who can't reliably remember how to say "Mommy" and mixes up the meanings of "Yes" and "No" from one day to the next. Uber Zen Master Henry!

Here is a small mysterious ritual our boy of mystery delights in. He gets a balloon at our local grocery store, carefully carrying it into the car, and then, once we get home he lets it go. Sometimes he waits till we are in the front yard, sometimes it is directly upon getting out of the car. Once in a while he releases it even in the grocery store's parking lot, but usually he waits till we get home. An excellent symbolic reminder to his struggling mother!

let it go -- by e.e. cummings
let it go-the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise-let it go it
was sworn to
go

let them go-the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers-you must let them go they
were born
to go

let all go-the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things-let all go
dear
so comes love