"I love you enough to let you go."

I didn't fully grasp God's gift of free will until the day I gave my daughter wings to fly away. 

Having recently graduated from college, she was leaving to start a new life with her boyfriend hundreds of miles away. Of all the successive milestones towards eventual independence, her first steps, her first two-wheeled bike, kindergarten, summer camp, driving and dating, this was the Big One.

It was a rare rainy morning in Southern California. The passage of time weighed heavily on my shoulders as I drove my daughter to the airport, sitting next to my little girl, now all grown up.  I told myself this was just a normal coming of age moment, but my voice, thick with lonely, was betraying me. 
 
As the rain fell, the windshield wipers marked the time like a sorrowful metronome, a terrible countdown to the waning minutes I still had left. 

After the farewell hugs and kisses, the time came. She turned and walked away from me.  I watched her slip into the crowd. Each one of her steps pounded my heart like a hollow drum. A nearby escalator would soon carry my baby up to her new life.  The enormity of letting go was a throbbing heartache.

I could hold back no longer.

Surrounding by busy travelers scurrying in all directions and resisting a tidal waves of tears, I ran toward the escalator. I arrived just before she would be lifted out of sight.  Her face shone down with love for me.  The airport noise faded away and I all heard was our hearts beating for each other. It was then that I called out to her:

 "I love you enough to let you go."

God created us to have free will.  Though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. 

The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other, in currents of love and delight. 

And for that they've got to be free to soar.
      ------C. S. Lewis

The mind of the man plans his way, but the Lord directs his step
      ------Proverbs 16:9

Parents, give your children roots and wings. Roots to know where home is, Wings to fly away and roots to know where home is and what's been taught.
                  — Jonas Salk

More on our free flights:

Lift-Off: In Defiance of Gravity

Wings to Soar!

September Flight

Morning Flight

LIFT-OFF: In Defiance of Gravity

Wings to Soar

September Flight

Morning Flight

Thank you for flying with me.
  -----Gloria