June has clasped us in her hot embrace, and blows her humid breath all through our hills. Honeysuckle vine twines all over the road banks and fence posts, their yellow and white flowers sending out the scent of summer and graduation. The nostalgic perfume of honeysuckle brings back memories that are forever burned in my mind.
Each stage of life is a step forward that cannot be repeated. We leave elementary school, never to return. We graduate from middle school, telling classmates good-bye, and some we may never see again. After four years of high school, the big day of graduation comes and we are free!
It is only after we get out of school and on our own, do we realize how free we were. We are now free to make decisions that will affect the rest of our life. Do we go on to college (a wise decision,) join our Armed Forces, look for job opportunities, or what? All at once our freedom to be on our own is frightening.
Parents watch the graduation ceremonies with pride mingled with tears. Each step that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren take, from Head Start to marriage, fills me with mixed emotions, the same feelings that I experienced with our children. It seems that they have grown up so fast—too fast—and I am not ready.
Bonnie (Short) Seymoure, of Spencer, sent me a poem long ago that sums up many of our feelings. I am sending this especially to Darren Porter, who is suffering a few pangs of his own.
A TOUCH OF LOVE
By Cindy Zelinski
You were six months old and full of fun
With a blink of the eye, you were suddenly one.
There were so many things we were going to do,
But I turned my head, and you turned two.
At two you were very dependent on me,
But independence took over when you turned three.
Your third birthday; another year I tried to ignore,
But when I lit the candles, there weren’t three, but four.
Four was the year that you really strived,
Why look at you now; you’re already five!
Now you are ready for books and for rules,
This is the year that you go to school!
The big day came, you were anxious to go,
We walked to the bus, going oh, so slow.
As you climbed aboard and waved goodbye,
I felt a lump in my throat, and tears stung my eye.
Time goes so fast; it is hard to believe,
That just yesterday, you were home here with me.
And tomorrow when the bus brings you home, and you jump to the ground,
You’ll be wearing your cap and graduation gown.
So I’m holding to the moments as hard as I can,
Because the next time I look, I’ll be seeing a man.
We bear our babies, carefully nurture and bring them up, then watch them leave, one by one. And we are never ready. The mileposts are reached before we know it—we have our children such a short time. So we swallow the lump in our throats, try to smile through our tears, and watch them walk away.
Instead of mourning over the years that are past and gone, I think we need to concentrate on the NOW. Try to live each day to the utmost, enjoy the little things, appreciate nature and the beauty all around us, and above all, reflect Christ in our talk and actions. (I aim to take my own advice!)
We are blessed in having most of our children and grandchildren right around us. The same hills that hold me fast are also holding them. We are relatively isolated from much of the inner city problems–the crime, violence and actual dangers.
Their playhouse is the open countryside, the woods and hills. Living close to nature brings a dimension to their lives that is missing in city children. However, they are growing up in a vastly different world. They are faced with pressures that we never dreamed of, and surrounded by a much different atmosphere.
They are more advanced in knowledge, sophisticated in culture, and mature for their years. They are growing up in a world where crime and violence are rampant, terrorism a constant threat, corruption in government is commonplace, and wickedness abounds in high places.
What can we, as parents and grandparents, do? We can pray—we must pray. In this fast-changing world, the only unchanging thing is the Solid Rock, Christ Jesus. We pray for God to hold our young ones in His hands; we pray for their parents to have the wisdom to direct their children in the right way, and to instill in them a love for God and His teachings that will lead them to salvation.
We pray for the children to find that Anchor early in their lives, the Anchor that holds us steady when the world is in turmoil.
A big “thank you” goes out to Joan Parker, Janet Tucker of Hometown, J. W. (Dude) Birt of Texas, June Cox of Winifrede, Harold Hutchinson of Ripley, and Marian Starcher of Charleston who sent the words to “Rank Stranger.”
RANK STRANGERS TO ME