One of the best moments of parenting.......
I watched something really cool yesterday......two of my boys acting like men. Men with real values. It was amazing. What only weeks or months before would have meant arguing and blaming, yesterday was humble, value for the other person, and real bonding.
TC, 14, was sitting at the PC, playing a game and IM'ing with friends, and AO was outside with the little brothers and neighbor kids playing a rousing game of Jedi's. I heard more than saw AO stand at the screen door, calling to TC. He walked in the door, and he was nearly weeping. In his hands was the big, wooden broad sword that their Dad had made for TC for Christmas, broken in two sharp pieces.
He wept, "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry...."
TC patted him on the shoulder...."Don't worry, Buddy. It's ok. It's just a thing. Dad made this one, he can make another. When he does, we'll just put both of ours on our wall or something.....don't worry, it's ok. It's just a material thing."
Before me, my sons showed a manhood I had yet to imagine in them. A manhood of responsibility and of valuing a brother over a thing that was precious, in that it was a father's gift....but still just a thing.
I just sat and watched it unfold, like the bloom of a flower, or of the emergence of a butterfly from a cocoon. It was beautiful and amazing.
I've seen this before, this coming to maturity. But it seemed slower, more labored. I can't take credit as a parent. I did my best to give them all the same values as they grew. These two embraced the values that their Dad and I worked so hard to teach and to model. They could have chosen differently. Others had. But these two chose integrity and caring.
Suddenly, as I look at TC, the changes in his looks, how he carries himself, the depth of his voice, I realize that my days of mothering are becoming fewer and fewer. The years of maturity will follow more nad more quickly, piling upon one another until the little one will deepen in voice and grow in stature.
It's bittersweet, watching your "babies" lose their need for your guidance, but, a moment like yesterday's is a glowing warmth of satisfaction that they are becoming all I have prayed for them to be.
TC, 14, was sitting at the PC, playing a game and IM'ing with friends, and AO was outside with the little brothers and neighbor kids playing a rousing game of Jedi's. I heard more than saw AO stand at the screen door, calling to TC. He walked in the door, and he was nearly weeping. In his hands was the big, wooden broad sword that their Dad had made for TC for Christmas, broken in two sharp pieces.
He wept, "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry...."
TC patted him on the shoulder...."Don't worry, Buddy. It's ok. It's just a thing. Dad made this one, he can make another. When he does, we'll just put both of ours on our wall or something.....don't worry, it's ok. It's just a material thing."
Before me, my sons showed a manhood I had yet to imagine in them. A manhood of responsibility and of valuing a brother over a thing that was precious, in that it was a father's gift....but still just a thing.
I just sat and watched it unfold, like the bloom of a flower, or of the emergence of a butterfly from a cocoon. It was beautiful and amazing.
I've seen this before, this coming to maturity. But it seemed slower, more labored. I can't take credit as a parent. I did my best to give them all the same values as they grew. These two embraced the values that their Dad and I worked so hard to teach and to model. They could have chosen differently. Others had. But these two chose integrity and caring.
Suddenly, as I look at TC, the changes in his looks, how he carries himself, the depth of his voice, I realize that my days of mothering are becoming fewer and fewer. The years of maturity will follow more nad more quickly, piling upon one another until the little one will deepen in voice and grow in stature.
It's bittersweet, watching your "babies" lose their need for your guidance, but, a moment like yesterday's is a glowing warmth of satisfaction that they are becoming all I have prayed for them to be.
posted by Parental Guidance Required @ 8:58 PM
1 Comments:
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