Monday 17 March 2014

Spring has Sprung

Feels like it's finally here. That thing called Spring that we have waited for for so long.  And doesn't it feel good? Like anything, the having is all the sweeter for a long wait.

With the spring have come thoughts of the children that have sprung from me. Perhaps because they have been away on holiday during half term. I guess I think about them a lot. This is undoubtedly because I do not live with them but in a nursing home instead and unfortunately we are separated much of the time. This artificial distance gives me perhaps a perspective on them which I would not otherwise have.

The thing is I really like them. Of course I love them (more than life itself, actually) I mean that as well as love them I really LIKE them: the  people they are becoming

My daughter is a very pretty girl. And all the prettier because she does not act as if if she knows it. However she does not have outward looks alone She has an inner beauty that shines out of her. It is a beacon that I'm sure will attract many people during her lifetime.

She is also great company: a lovely person to be with. The kind of person that you just feel better after being with her.

Add to all this brains, humour, maturity, common sense and kindness and she really does have it all. Oh. and she has the singing voice of an angel too. She is still only 14 but already is one hell of a woman!

As for my son, what of him?  He is two years younger so has more growing and developing ahead of him than his sister. He also is a looker: a very handsome boy and becomingly modest, too.

I wonder that his little arms are not pulled out of their sockets with the sheer weight of his not inconsiderable gifts, which are as weighty as his sisters'.  He is fiendishly clever: capable across the board of being good at anything he puts his mind to. He is also wickedly funny: he can have me crying with laughter in seconds, thanks to his clowning around and ascerbic wit. Self-expression on paper seems to come very naturally to him also

But it is his sweetness and kindness to others that has the power truly to take my breath away. I have seen him tenderly lead an elderly man with dementia in the right direction. Or help a bewildered and ailing man upstairs with his bag, who has been unceremoniously dumped at the door of his home by an ambulance crew who should have known better. He does these things easily and naturally, almost without thinking.  Remarkable behaviour for a 12-year-old!

I can take very little of the credit for these outstanding young people. For I truly believe that in the main children emerge from the river of souls almost fully formed. As parents we do comparatively little to shape them. If I am a good parent it is because I am a good gardener. I have simply tried my best to provide good conditions for them to grow in:  good soil, enough water and plenty of light. They have done most of the growing and developing all by themselves

I seem to have had the good fortune to bring forth two top quality world citizens of tomorrow: for I am confident that the world will be a better place with my children in it. They will make their contributions sensibly, responsibly and intelligently. Exactly how they chose to do so will be revealed in due course.

And as they continue to grow up I will have the pleasure of witnessing it all unfolding.  So here's to their continuing journey and to the Spring that has just arrived!