here's an excerpt of text which i found meaningful in a book that i had just finished reading:

"Parents rarely let go of their children, so the children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them-a mother's approval, a father's nod-are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives."

(The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom)