Wow, James, this is brilliant!! Besides the surprising parallels that touched my nerve and my heart, - moving far away and leaving our family home and the car to the youngest to manage (he was 22 at that time), - your reflections are very thought-provoking. It is incredibly difficult to see our big decisions from the perspective of our grown up kids. I think the fact that your kids let you listen what they had to say, and you are still in "regular contact" with them is a real treasure. In our case, our communication with the kids became somewhat broken. Not because the kids did not like the change; it was the opposite, they wanted to be independent, - but because we did not have the habit of good listening to them before the change happened... I just read your Listen Up Already! piece about the power of listening (thanks for the link! I'll get back to it later), and I totally agree with your point that "Good listening builds a connection between you and the other person." I guess, we had not built deep enough connections with our kids, and when the physical distance between us increased, it also widened the emotional distance between us. It is true, that we all make mistakes, and now I feel it is time for me to try to fix this mistake of bad listening. I hope it will help me to rebuild my connection with my kids. It is easier said than done of course, and I'm so glad to find many helpful thoughts in your articles. Thanks for sharing, James; it is really awesome.