Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Cut Free


Years and years ago, when the kids were very young (15 years ago, at least), I dressed the kids up, stood in line to see Santa, and fitfully got through the ordeal. Santa handed each kid a seedling, and me being me, I came home and planted each in a small pot and nursed them until they were big and strong enough to transfer to a bigger pot. And so on. Months turned to years, we moved, and the small trees came with us. Eventually, we planted them in the ground, and they grew too big for that space, too, and required another transplanting.

The trees have been growing in our backyard ever since, not quite "making sense" there, but meaningful and significant to our family story, none-the-less.


Woohoo didn't come home for Thanksgiving this year, and that meant our annual tradition of going out and cutting down a Christmas tree, the day after Thanksgiving, would be different. We decided this would be the year we'd cut down one of the backyard Santa trees, and use it for Christmas. It's crowded where it is, it's grown too big to fit where once it did.


This was Woohoo's tree, and much the same way, she has grown beyond the limiting space she had in the home, and it is time to be cut loose. In five short months she will graduate from college and be on her own. She is not the little girl that got the seedling from Santa, nor is she the grown woman she will one day be, but she is ready to stand on her own, light her own way, and shine.




6 comments:

Unknown said...

This is beautiful - I love what you decided to do, for the tree and for the symbolism of setting your daughter "free." Wow. A lot of changes....how cool this is.

Jen said...

Every single thing about this is PERFECT. xo

kario said...

Oh. My.

Absolutely lovely. The tree, you, Woo-hoo. The whole shebang. (And how come Santa never gave my kids a seed? That is the coolest idea ever!)

I hope that this holiday celebration is incredibly special and wonderful and I hope she appreciates how you dressed her tree up. So much love.

Anonymous said...

Simply beautiful.

Elizabeth said...

Oh that brings tears to my eyes. Congratulations on making this huge transition with so much beauty and meaning!

fullsoulahead.com said...

Love.

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