#Childhood

CHILD ON A SWING

 

What is it that makes us smile when we see a child on a swing

as they sway to and fro…laughing so innocently?

Perhaps for a moment we are reminded of the child we use to be.

 

Who would swing as high as our legs would take us…

how with each swing we’d try to make the swing set strain…

How we loved playing in the mud…and riding our bicycles in the rain. 

 

How without aid of on instrument…

we could be a one-man or one-woman band.

How we believed in Santa Claus…and made castles in the sand.

 

We remember that childhood is where we learned to love…

and are captivated by that thought…

for everything we know about love…is what we have been taught.

 

It is the same with honesty and kindness…

with forgiveness and generosity 

The same with showing tenderness and compassion 

for everyone and everything we see.

 

And we are humbled…watching a child on a swing

for we know if they are to grow up in the kind and loving world we’d like to see 

The lessons of love they are to learn…are our responsibility.

 

An awesome responsibility…

(Parents…you may now discuss)

for what our children learn of love…is what they learn from us.

 

And as the child swings back and forth…

here’s something else to contemplate…

By watching us our children can learn to love…

But:

They can also learn to hate.

 

And how do we know if love was taught to them…

If kindness in the world they bring?

Look to see if they still laugh as innocently when they grow up

as they did when they were young…

when they sit upon a swing.

View joy's Full Portfolio

THANKFUL FOR MEMORIES OF WHEN I WAS A CHILD

 

May we be blessed to acknowledge all the wonders in our life

that have, for us, thus far accrued…

and to begin each day with a word of thanks…

and thoughts of gratitude.

 

Today I’m thankful for the memories of when I was but a little thing… 

of how it felt every time I’d swing on a swing…

 

And the older I get…may I always be blessed 

to swing as free and brave and wild

as I did when I was a child.

View joy's Full Portfolio

THE SWING

 

We hung a swing on our porch at our cabin…where we plan to swing through all the seasons.

We’ll tell people who ask it’s for the children…but that’s only half the reason.

 

Yes, it’s for any child who visits…but for us there will always be another plus…

The swings will help Deborah and I remember….the child inside of us.

 

Because the moment we sit in our swing…(any swing)…we forget we are women or men

when we are swinging to and fro…it’s like we’re 5 years old again.

 

We may be quiet…we may begin to laugh…we may even begin to sing…

remembering how we once felt…seated on a swing.

 

We release our inner child—-remembering what it’s like to fly without the use of wings.

remembering the days when we were young…and all we had to do was swing. 

 

Remembering swinging higher and higher…as high as we dared to go…

when we tickled the clouds with our feet and touched the stars with our toes.

 

So if you see the swing at our cabin…

(or for that matter any swing)

sit in it….

Because chances are that empty swing is missing you…

as much as you are missing it.

View joy's Full Portfolio

CHILDHOOD WISHES

 

 

I love the stars…the moon…the sun…the clouds…the wind…the flowers…the sea.

When I was growing up they were all mysterious…and special to me.

 

There was a time within my youth…from all of these my wishes stemmed

an innocent time…not so long ago, when I wished that I could be them.

 

But the wishes of a child are capricious…innocent…impulsive…not complex

and those wishes changed quite easily…from one wish to the next.

 

My first wish was to be a star. I loved the way they shined…but that was over soon.

“Why be a star,” I thought to myself, “when I could be the moon!”

 

I loved the moon but she spends all her time in darkness

and I thought, ‘that wouldn’t be very much fun.'

“I no longer wish to be the moon.” I announced. “I’d much rather be the sun!”

 

As much as I loved the sun, she’s too hot 

and up there, I imagined, no air conditioning’s allowed….

“I no longer wish to be the sun.” I exclaimed. “I’d rather be a cloud.”

 

And though I loved the clouds…

they don’t control their flight as they soar across the sky.

which made me wonder if that could be the cause…the reason that clouds cry.

 

As I continued making wishes to be the wind…the flowers…the sea

I began to wonder if any of these…ever wished they could be me.

 

If any of these wonders of nature…on the land below or the sky above

has a mind…a heart…a soul…has the ability to love.

 

Which made me think I must be pretty special…

to be able to wish…to dream…to hold on to a fantasy….

and so my final wish was to be happy…

as I continue being me.

View joy's Full Portfolio

IN BLACK AND WHITE

One of the reasons I like walking in the morning…with only the moon and stars for light

is how a world of daytime color is reduced to black and white.

 

It’s when the jumbled clamor of daytime sounds have all but faded away

It’s when the crickets are serenading and the rabbits come out to play.

 

Away from most distractions I can renew my self-esteem

It’s easier to think…so much easier to dream.

 

Today as an old man walking…after all the years I have compiled

I was thinking back and dreaming…what it was like to be a child.

 

It’s those first steps toddled across the floor, arms extended…ending in an embrace.

It’s not caring how that ice cream your eating is messing up your face.

 

It’s eating moon pies…anything chocolate…it’s splashing barefoot in a mountain stream.

It’s catching fireflies around a campfire…I forget…did I mention the ice cream.

 

It’s never being in a hurry…but how your focus changes quick…

It’s throwing pebbles in a lake…or playing for hours with a stick.

 

It’s admiring every flower…waving to the engineer on a passing train.

It’s catching snowflakes on the tip of your tongue…it’s dancing in the rain.

 

It’s pretending you’re a bird or an airplane…and spreading your wings to soar…

it’s walking barefoot in the sand and playing tag with the waves along the shore.

 

It’s running as fast as you can…not afraid of falling…it’s taking pride in all your scars

It’s lying on your back in the grass and counting all the stars

 

So as I finished my walk this morning…in the moon and star’s fading light

about to return to a world of color…I once again said good-bye to the black and white

 

But not before remembering every piece of this mornings dream…

and knowing sometime today I’m going to eat a moon pie…

and I’m going to top it with ice cream.

View joy's Full Portfolio

CHASING FIREFLIES

 

On a morning walk as I watched a burst of lightning flash before my eyes…

a memory was awakened…of our children chasing fireflies.

 

It was in the evening…after dark…around a campfire in N.C.

when from a blended marriage we were still learning how to be a family.

 

I remember how our children were fascinated by fireflies…when a flash of light was all that they could see…I remember it was here they began to learn how beautiful nature could be.

 

I remember Deborah’s father smiling, knowing our children would be no match, as he told them he’d give them a nickel for every firefly they could catch.

 

As I look back at our children chasing fireflies…long before this poem was penned…

I remember at the time thinking to myself how I wished that moment would never end.

 

We never know when a sight, a sound, a taste, a touch…a smell…will awaken in us a memory from the place where memories dwell.

 

We never know when or how a memory…across our minds will leap…

to visit for a moment before returning to the place where memories sleep.

 

It’s funny how that moment…the one I wished would never end…still visits every now and then…like an old and treasured friend.

 

Of course that moment did end…but over the years I have come to understand why…why moments in our life flash like lightning across the sky.

 

Because moments of beauty are meant to be ephemeral…

so that every person…every child…every woman…every man…

can gather, in their lifetime, as many memories as they can…

 

So that…on a morning walk 

when they see a bursts of lightning flash across the skies…

a memory will awaken…

like watching their children chasing fireflies.

 
View joy's Full Portfolio

LIKE HOLDING ON TO A CLOUD

 

I once thought that being an adult meant being a child was no longer allowed…that trying to re-capture our childhood would be like trying to hold on to a cloud.

 

Now I know each day we rise…as we welcome in a new day…the child in us has been changed…but they are never far away.

 

That child has been joined by all the other children and people we have been…in what I picture as a giant reservoir…where all those people float together and synthesize into who we are.

 

We are constantly adding to our child…each day we change the sum…as we evolve from every person we ever were…and are…into who we will become.

 

And although I know we can never again be that particular child…this I also know…if we’re lucky we awake each morning embracing the wisps of that child from long ago.

 

Responsibilities and obligations may change us during life’s roller coaster ride…but we needn’t worry about that child…they’ve never left our side.

 

So we don’t have to re-capture our childhood…we only need to be aware that if we look into our hearts and souls…we’ll find our child nestled there.

 

It makes perfect sense to me…after all as a species look at what we’ve done…we’ve climbed mountains, put a man on the moon, and harnessed the power of the sun.

 

We’ve built huge skyscrapers…we fall in love…we have so many reasons to be proud…don’t tell me we can’t do something as simple as hold on to a cloud.

 

I felt my child with me when I awoke today…and I don’t know about you…but with a morning sky filled with clouds…

that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

 

View joy's Full Portfolio

LITTLE EYES

 

 

Years ago my granddaughter and I were watching the sun set over the ocean…and as we stood there enjoying the view…she said, “Pick me ip PopPop, so I can see as good as you.”

 

“Why is that?” I asked as I lifted her up and we gazed out at the sky. 

“Because,” she said with the innocence of a child, “I have little eyes.”

 

I watched a smile engulf her face…I watched her eyes widen within her head…”The view is so much better up her.  Thanks, PopPop.” She said.

 

You have to admire the way a child’s mind works…there is no pretense….no deception…there is an honesty…a vulnerability in the innocence of their perception.

 

She was just a little girl then…brimming with purity and charm…who thought the world would look a little different way up in PopPop’s arms.

 

As we watched the sun paint the sky…as I held on to her…tight

as I saw the expression on her face…I remember thinking she might be right.

 

My granddaughter is now as tall as me…those days of lifting her into my arms have past…but I pray no matter how tall she grows…her innocence will last.

 

I hope she never will forget…those days when she was a little bit shorter than me in size…

those days I held her in my arms 

and she saw the world through little eyes.

 
 
View joy's Full Portfolio

HER CHILD

They didn't know each other as children…their seeds of love were later sewn…when the two of them were older…when the two them were grown.

 

At least that’s what he thought at first…but he quickly had his doubts…for he falls in love with her child…every time she lets her child out.

 

Her child comes out so often…it’s like he married a set of twins…never knowing where her adult might end…and where her child begins.

 

After spending a lifetime together…even now, when they’re old and gray…he falls in love with her again…every time her child comes out to play.

 

In fact he loves to watch the transformation…loves every glimpse of her child at play…and as they spend the rest of their life together…he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 
 
View joy's Full Portfolio