The Perfect Love Affair

No one knows how perfect and how intense the emotions run between mother and child except for the two of them. How the child yearns for the mother and constantly turns to her for nourishment, comfort and entertainment, and everything else too actually. How the mother starts to yearn for her child the moment she steps out of the house without him. How she hurries when she has errands to run so she can reunite with him sooner. How she wears her heart on her sleeve because of him. How when she hears his cries, her own eyes sting and threaten to well up and often do, when she hears or sees fear or desperation in her child.

Then the child grows and slowly, mother is no longer the sole source of nourishment and comfort. The memories of the time of constant yearning for mother fades into a distant dream. The heart remembers but the mind can no longer cling on to the memories.

The mother grows too. She grows to fulfill other responsibilities. To add more income to the household. To meet the different needs of the child. Her memories fade into a haze as she constantly struggles to meet the present needs.

They both speak with their tongues now, the language of adults, no longer the unspoken understanding they had as mother and infant. Sometimes words get in the way. When the child can't quite yet explain himself fully but wants to. When the mother can't yet help the child to understand her words fully but wants to.

The mother is tempted by the urge to hang on to all things babyish about her child but she must let go. Her growing child reminds her of that everyday. In the quiet recesses of her heart, she mourns the passing of time because her memories are being clawed away.

But it is true, that when something dies, something new and wonderful takes its place. The child still reaches out for his mother, but now with a blossoming personality, with idiosyncrasies that belong only to him and that surprise her everyday. These are the unspoken gifts the child continues to present to his mother.

How does the love affair end?

It never will. It may grow cold or it may continue to blossom. This is how I want mine to continue:

The mother listens and still speaks to her sons with her heart. With every passing heartbeat, her love grows deeper for them. Neither distance nor the passing of time can weaken the bond forged in this perfect love affair between mother and child.