The Voice of the Adult Orphan

It’s huge. This vast space where I float now — untethered. I am an only child. They have left, and I am now an orphan. I remind myself that they gave me all that they could, and taught me all that I needed to know, before their time here on earth with me came to an end.

I am moving through the pain, the loss, the grief, and then eventually, some form of acceptance.

It is terrifying, yet somehow it is also invigorating. Where I go from here, what I give and take from this world now is on me, in me. Rooted by the qualities that they instilled in me, but infinite in scope.

I have been groomed and molded by their love, and then released, set free. Like a baby bird, sent out from the warm nest, and into the enormous sky.