It doesn't matter if you're unfamiliar with this song by Morrissey. You only need to know the feeling it evokes.
It's the feeling every parent gets when their kids are with them and happy and all is right. You get it on the day they're born. You get it when they're little and in their jammies and you're snuggled up watching Disney movies together. You get it when they're a little older and you start having conversations together about important things. Adult things.
And you get it when they're mostly grown-up and it's Thanksgiving and they're all home and that never happens.
My driveway is as full as my heart today because all of the kids are home at the same time. This, you begin to realize in the teenage years, is an increasingly rare occurrence. It is the way of life that they're going to start spending more time away from home than in it, and that's a good thing. That's the way it should be.
But you miss the jammie-wearing, Disney-watching days. And while you'll never get them back, having them clogging up the driveway, sitting in the kitchen and laughing while they eat pizza together as young adults is the next best thing.
Suddnely you understand a gratitude you hadn't known before. It brings a deeper meaning to Thanksgiving.
And now my heart is full. I hope yours is, too.
