Falling in Love Again

I've fallen in love with my parents.

I always thought they were pretty amazing people, but, like most, we had a few issues over the years. Before All of This, they weren't shy with their opinions that I need to lose weight, my children needed more discipline, I was apparently a horrible child and a worse teenager, etc. I harbored opinions that they thought Karen Carpenter would have been such a pretty girl if she could have just lost another 10 pounds, fear was a good tradeoff for empathetic parenting and why the heck couldn't they see that I was their only child to not do drugs, have sex in high school and sneak out of the house?

I'm sorry, what was I talking about?

The time that they spent here, while we were thrust into the Amazing World of Childhood Cancer, had its effect. My mother and I were always daily callers to each other, but now, even Dad is in the party. "Hey, be sure and watch CMT tonight - it's going to be Bruce Springsteen doing 'The Seeger Sessions.'" "Hey, did you read 'Pearls Before Swine' today? We've both had 'friends' like Rat, haven't we?"

It's not like anything in our relationship has changed that much. I always knew that I was loved, and they always knew I loved them.

I guess, now, it's that I know I'm cherished. And they know they're appreciated. Hmm. Maybe that's the whole secret to this parent/child thing. The child wants to feel cherished and the parent wants to feel appreciated.

Okay, now to make my monkeys feel cherished ...