“Joy and woe are woven fine.” You can’t have joy without the prospect of mourning, and to some people this makes joy a difficult feeling to bear. Especially in parenthood, where loss is inevitable, built into the very paradox of raising children; we pour love into them so that they’ll one day grow strong enough to leave us. Even when our children are still young and defenseless, we feel intimations of their departure. We find ourselves staring at them with nostalgia, wistful for the person they’re about to no longer be.
