“A baby holds your hand, and then suddenly there’s this huge man lifting you off the ground, and then he’s gone. Where’s that son?”

Andre Gregory / “My Dinner With Andre”

by Jarret Liotta

WESTPORT — Much as I’ve tried to deny it, I awoke yesterday thinking about my daughter’s imminent move to Boston for college.

Maybe some people can shrug off the emotions of their baby bird leaving the coop, but I can’t pretend I’m not mildly devastated — again!

After going through this same experience with her two years ago, last March COVID provided an unexpected treat — 18 months of refreshingly intact unity in our family nucleus — a veritable retreat into the past, where she, my son and I got to bask in one another’s unhurried company and relish that unique unaffected coexistence particular to family ties.

There were times of challenge, of course — mostly centering around laundry and dishes — but what a literal blessing it was to be together again.

And now another season is changing …

As I’ve embarked on this editorial role, I’ve devoted ample time to thinking about Westport like never before — from different angles, trying to discover different perspectives from which to see it, and searching out different vistas on which to focus.

I’ll admit it’s always been hard to watch what I perceive as my hometown’s subtle destruction due to things like suburban “deforestation,” the influx of gaudy chain stores and rude traffic, behemoth-like houses better suited to an independently owned island rather than a half-acre lot sandwiched between two others …

But I’m starting to ask: “What makes me so right about any of it?!”

The world rolls on … And while I may harbor my different attachments to whatever it is that pleases me, to what I feel a need (or desire) to cling to, that doesn’t presuppose those things are even in my best interest … or yours … or the town’s … or the world’s at large …

Maybe on another level there may be ample joy in embracing the changes — feeling the loss, mourning if it seems necessary, and then looking ahead with eager eyes to what may be next?!

I once read where a wise man said that if you fight against what is, you’re fighting against the entire universe.

It doesn’t mean I have to find complete agreement with every idea or initiative being brought forward. (I mean, let’s face it, some of them are kind of stupid!) But maybe I can slowly practice widening my perspective and be open to the heretofore foreign concept that I might not know everything after all.

Of course, at first glance that doesn’t help with the bittersweet pains of saying goodbye as my girl rides on to her next frontier.

But maybe it can …

Maybe if I stop focusing on what I’m losing, stop clinging to what was, wipe the past out of my eyes and look farther still … I may see something …

Maybe it’s all going to be okay …

Maybe the next season will be beautiful too …