She Walked

Once again, for the fourth and presumably final time, she walked and I cried.  Three times I watched her take the graduate's walk: high school, college and law school.  This time she walked across a lawn on the arm of her devoted daddy. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Although this isn't the first time I've watched her take a ceremonial walk, there was something profoundly final about this one.  She has lived with young Paul for years, been on her own for even longer. I believe strongly that a married woman is her own person, autonomous and whole. Still, there was something different about this walk. She and Paul stood before the people they love and declared themselves a family, whole unto themselves. She is still my daughter, still part of my family, but her first allegiance is to her husband, to the circle they have created,to the family they will build.  It was sweet and a little melancholy.

Ah, but how can you be melancholy when there's a taco truck and a giant seahorse pinata? That's how us hippies do it in Southern Oregon.