Quote from Forum Archives on May 24, 2003, 7:08 am

Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>

<> They're Still Now <>

Passing through my kitchen and looking into the backyard through the moon
light, I see four old ropes tied to crustypine limbs and holding planks as
make-do swings. Neither of them will swing in a straight arc, but what do
two squealing children know about swinging straight anyway? All they want to
do is hold on tight, lift their feet in the air, and yell  "Look at me,
PePaw. Look how high I'm going." It seems as if it was only yesterday I
heard two children  quealing, "Push me, PePaw. Make me go high," but I
can't because it has been more than a year since the grandkids used them.
They are hanging still and quiet in the moonlight and in the shadows of
those old pine trees.
When they are only three or four years old, grandchildren can
visit almost anytime. But when they begin school, they can only
come once or twice a year for short visits. When they do, there
is so much to do they don't have time to swing under pine trees

in the back yard. When they do come, Grandparents have to cram
so many months of activities in only a day or so, there is no
time for swinging. It has been a long time since those old pine
trees have heard squeals of children swinging on their boughs

 

They are hanging still tonight.

Its winter time now in our back yard, and it is winter time
in the dwindling years of our lives. Looking out into our back
yard, the silence of winter wind, rustling branches, pine needles
and pine cones does not disturb those swings. Perhaps, it is the
weight of the planks holding them still. Perhaps it is just the
weight of the memories of two squealing children holding them still.

 

Parents, I urge you to cherish the childhood times of your
squealing children. Cultivate as many memories as you can.

 

One day when they expand their friendship circle to include
other friends to share their time, you won't have them to
yourselves all the time. When this happens and you are in
the winter months of your lives, you want to have your minds
eye filled with as many memories standing still as you can.
--Lawrence Brotherton

 

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<> The Power of Holding Hands  <>  

 

I was sitting on a beach one summer day, watching two children, a boy
and a girl, playing in the sand.  They were hard at work building an
elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge, with gates and towers and
moats and internal passages.  Just when they had nearly finished their
project, a big wave came along and knocked it down, reducing it to a
heap of wet sand.  I expected the children to burst into tears,
devastated by what had happened to all their hard work. But they
surprised me.  Instead, they ran up the shore away from the water,
laughing and holding hands, and sat down to build another castle.  I
realized that they had taught me an important lesson. All the things
in our lives, all the complicated structures we spent so much time and
energy creating, are built on sand. Only our relationships to other
people endure. Sooner or later, the wave will come along and knock
down what we have worked so hard to build up. When that happens,

 only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to laugh.

 

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Have a Blessed Day

Dave and Barbara

 

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