I see a little boy with golden waves bouncing in the early summer wind. He has a handful of the colored buds dangling to the stems. His excited hands give there best effort to be gentle with his collection he plucked from the woodsy trail. A smile so innocent and glowing with playfulness shouted out to me, "Here Mommy. Some pretty flowers." Nature's confetti sprung from the ground now decorate my hair. This little child decorates my life.
Moments like this is when I think of him in awe and splendor... my thoughts race as my heart absorbs these young years of whirling, whimsical childhood days. I fall so deep and full of love for this boy I grew inside me and held to my bosom to feed. I prayed for growth and wisdom in him and as the years pass me by, I am proud of he and I and the maturity we've stowed upon the other. The sweet innocence of him now is as magical as his first breath outside my womb.
Some nights, I pray like a beggar that he won't grow into someone who loses that sweetness and innocence. I hope he never sees these dandelions as weeds or the rain that supplies their life as dreary. I hope his years are full of splash puddles and nature's little somethings that sprout from the cracks in hard clay. I hope this is how he sees the world always. I hope he feeds his soul with wonderful things like swimming in rivers with friendly freckled faces and picks pretty souvenirs from the ground and gives them to the people with souls that move his own. I hope he fills his life with art, music, and such spiritual curiosity that it brings him back to his Maker. I hope his eyes see far and wide to take in the colors of the world and finds humor in places many forget to look for it. May his life be delightful and filled with real human connections in a world far more focused on dividing us than bringing us together. I hope he sees far more on the horizon than he does in a screen and I hope he can always discern the difference in being a good human and making a bad mistake.
With dimpled grins and full-bodied laughter, he will crush fears and tear down walls of injustice and hate. I hope he builds a place of sanctity somewhere to find solace and an escape. He will always know the one I have built for him. Home. In my nest he will always have a place to belong. While he is under my wing he will learn to love people, keep an open heart and open mind, but to stand firm in what he believes.
The constant wishes and hopes for my son never end - and like the dandelion bracelet that now circles these arms that hold him, my love will never end. Our bond forever unbroken.
Stay, Son
Baily Jones
March 2019
