Do you hear that? Me neither!

It would be hard to explain how much I do NOT want to be the kind of mom that holds my child back - through fear, guilt, or any of those motherly "gifts". As she's grown, she's done quite a bit of traveling without me, including 3 (now 4) foreign countries. It has never left me feeling anything except elation, knowing that she was having an experience... living her life as fully as a parent could hope. This time it feels a little bit different. This time it is a practice trip for college. This time she'll come back for a few months, and then fly from the nest. Oh sure, she'll be back, but it will never be quite the same again. From now on, she'll just be stopping by on her way to somewhere else.

That's what we want, isn't it? We want them to have been given the strength and fortitude to stand alone, to want to go ahead and leave us behind. Right?

The timing of this particular trip has driven this home for me. They left 2 days after her 18th birthday. A friend and I joked on the phone that I spent 18 years trying to keep her a safe distance from sex and drugs, and then 2 days later she goes to Amsterdam. Pretty funny.

She'll be back before I know it. And this will even be home for a while longer. It just felt like something that needed to be preserved.

So... otherwise, check out Radiance at HerbsfromtheLabyrinth.com. Sarah and I have been working on putting together a schedule of lunch time classes, every Wednesday through (I think) May. I hope she'll put up a list of classes on her site soon! I will get something up here next Weds. after I get home from Radiance. This coming Weds we will be doing a distillation demonstration. No charge for this one, bring your lunch and come check it out!

The new Yahoo! list for herb businesses, Grow Your Herb Business, has been talking up a storm, trying to help each other through the maze of social networking. Today was Twitter day. Follow me at www.twitter.com/essentialherbal. It is fun having other people who are as unsure as I am to bounce things off.

And with some sadness, I finally caved and started using Click 'n Ship for my parcel shipping. For 8 years I have enjoyed hand addressing the orders that come through here, but have realized that I can't keep up any more. That's good, but I'll miss that personal touch.