What Is a Boy?

My mom penned these lines years ago.  I never loved them so much as I do these days...

 

Boys are found everywhere – above, underneath, inside, on, swinging through, flying around, or splashing about.

 

Mothers love them in their little plaid shirts,

little girls hate them (for a while), brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them, and Heaven protects them.
A little boy is Joy with dirt on his face, Truth with light in his eyes, the hope of the future with a frog in his pocket.

 

When you are busy, he can be bothersome. Nobody else is so early to rise or so up in the night. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs, or orange kites flown high.

Nobody else can cram a rusty knife, a half eaten apple, three feet of string, several gumdrops, a stack of baseball cards, six cents - and then some - into one blue jean pocket.

He is a boy – a magical creature. His traits are many, his potential is great. Give him a flag and he is a soldier. Give him space and he is an astronaut. Give him a testimony and he is a missionary. But for a time, wrapped in a soft blue blanket, he is yours.

Your boy.

You can lock him out of your workshop, but you can’t lock him out of your heart. You can push him away from your study, but you can’t get him out of your mind. So give up. He is your captor, your jailer, your boss.

And in the evening, as you ponder upon the shattered pieces of the day, when you see your hopes and dreams slip, seemingly, away – your little boy will come to you and mend those dreams like new, with words like ‘ma-ma,’ da-da’ and ‘I love you.”

Happy Birthday, Boy.