When my son Taylor started college at NYU as a freshman in the fall of 2018, we drove to the airport for move in weekend with Frank Sinatra as our soundtrack.
Start spreadin' the news
I'm leavin' today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York...
A few weeks ago I went with my friends Catie and Holly to a Candlelight Concert here in Atlanta where we heard an amazing quartet play the same tune. As soon as those iconic first notes hit me, it took me right back to those moments of sitting in the car with all the anxiety and excitement of a first time college mom.
This morning I am flying back home from visiting my son in New York. The last few years have gone by slowly (Covid) and quickly (all the other reasons). I love going to visit and to see all the things he is doing since graduating from college. It is always bittersweet. I'm so proud of him, and I miss him, and I love New York, and I also wish he was just a bit closer to home. It was recently his birthday and I found a picture from Easter when he was about 3 or 4 years old, with my arms around him helping him paint eggs. It made me think what an incredible joy it is to walk alongside life with someone special. Those little moments sometimes take my breath away. How is it that he is now 24 years old?
So, as I return this morning to Atlanta, I think of Sinatra singing about New York, "And if I can make it there, I'm gonna make it anywhere." What an absolute honor to get to be part of someone else's launch into their next steps - our children, our friends, our colleagues.
Where are you assisting in someone else's launch? It doesn't have to be a big move to college. It can be as simple as reaching out a hand and sharing encouragement, an opportunity, a friendship. There is a reason we call our faith story "the Good News." Because it overflows with unconditional love and cherishes others. That is a message we need to hear more of. That is news worth spreading.
And better yet - it is news worth DOING. Faith in action invites us to lean into not just talking about it or listening to it, but to living it, generously sharing with others, operating from a home base of love. Big, heart-full, starry eyed love - filled with hope and expectations and maybe even a dash of anxiety at all that can be.
Wherever you find big love, follow it.
As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news!”
Romans 10:15b
