What happens when the people we built our lives around stop needing us?

Or when we have to pick between having meaningful work and our family,

or just people who need us to take care of them?

There is a particular kind of grief and I can hear it when people say things like,

or what all goes by so fast, or just cherish your kids,

like there's like a panic in there, isn't it?

And that, I think, is a kind of ambiguous grief that comes with every expected and unexpected change.

So, I thought maybe today we could have a conversation about that feeling in parenting.

And I think there might be something in here for all of us who wonder in any capacity,

who am I, as my relationships change?

Can I still find myself there?

My guest today is so good at tracing that feeling that she's had over the course of her life,

who she was before she had kids, who she was while she was in the throws of parenting,

and now as she looks ahead to empty nesting, or what she calls her third act, who is she now?

I feel almost certain you know her.

My guest today is Mary Louise Kelly, and she doesn't know yet,

but we have been longtime friends, at least through my car radio and earbuds,

and that's because she's the co-host of NPR's All Things Considered.

She's had a really incredible life.

She's been her career reporting often from war zones, on matters of national security and intelligence,

and now she is sharing her own carefully observed life through her new memoir called It Goes So Fast.

An honest look at juggling the demands of time and heart as a mom of growing teenagers.

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