“Where are you going
My little one, little one
Where are you going
My baby, my ownTurn around and you’re two
Turn around and you’re four
Turn around and you’re a young girl
Going out of the door”
Harry Belafonte, Alan Greene & Malvina Reynolds wrote a song called TURN AROUND (a partial lyric above and below), and much like SUNRISE, SUNSET from Fiddler on the Roof, the songs lament the coming of age of the young lives with which we were entrusted as young parents. We think, “How can they be growing older when we don’t seem to be doing so”. The sad truth is we all have and as our children become the young idealistic adults that we once were, we step aside and allow them to assume the reigns on this life.
Two week from today, my oldest daughter will walk down the aisle (with her old man in tow) and start a new phase of her life with a young man who adores her as much as her mother and I do. A touch of sadness will undoubtedly slip in, knowing that our “little one” is no longer little. But she has earned her happiness, making her mother and I extremely proud. and we are comforted knowing we did the best we could by her and it shows.
However, before we reach that pinnacle, we celebrate the birthday of our youngest daughter as she turns twenty today. Seven years younger than her older sister, she is stepping into very comfortable shoes. She remains a bit more hard edged than her sibling, but her values and attitude mirror her sister almost exactly. She will be the Maid of Honor for the wedding, and it warms our hearts that the bond these two share is as close and loving as any two sisters can be. They’ve had their differences, but settle them with understanding and compassion. These are two good girls…er, fine young women we have raised.
“Turn around and you’re tiny
Turn around and you’re grown
Turn around and you’re a young wife
With babes of your ownTurn around, turn around
Turn around and you’re a young wife
With babes of your own”
IT'S JUST ANOTHER DAY 