Homecoming

Tonight is the Homecoming Dance for Offspring the first -- her final Homecoming, as she is a senior in high school now.  She chose her dress carefully, and selected the perfect accessories and shoes.  She spent much time on beautification and preparation, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  She looks lovely.  How did she grow up so quickly?  I do not know.

Herself is wistful.  Where did the time go, she wonders, that she should be here at this unexpected milestone so quickly?  How did she come to be so firmly middle-aged, she asks, trapped in work and family and house and bills and pets and daily grind, with some dreams lost (though other dreams found) and moments passed, never to return again?  

She says, "My daughter, so beautiful and youthful - and I am neither."  My heart breaks for her, for I know not how to comfort her.  She must find for herself some new dreams for her own future, and only she can determine what shape those dreams will take.