"Roots and Wings"

There's a saying that I have on a cross-stitch: "Give your children two things: One is roots...the other wings." Today my (not so little) son is spreading his wings in his first solo flight from the nest. As a proud mama bird, I am sitting back and letting him go. It's not easy, and it is, oh so, bitter-sweet. He is my first-born, my first baby. He has made a few smaller solo flights before, and each one of them has been such a success. Now he is grown into quite the young man, at such a young age too. He is ready for this big solo flight. I trust his roots, I know they run deep. They will keep that internal compass heading him in the right direction. I trust those fine, feathery wings to carry him aloft and far on his journeys, and always to have the strength to make it home.