Unlike me, he is lean and athletic. Oh sure, I suppose there was a day when you might have said I bordered on athletic. I played baseball, golf, and softball and I lettered in tennis in high school. But never in my life would I have ever been described as “lean.”
Michael on the other hand is lean and strong. When he went for his snorkeling badge at Boy Scouts his scout leader was worried that whenever he got into the pool he sunk like a lawn dart. No fat on the kid whatsoever. SO maybe I shouldn’t worry so much about the constant grazing, but I do.
Every night I watch him go through the house, growing by the day, with his cheery smile and perfect posture. In the blink of an eye he has gone from being my cute little side-kick to being every inch of 5 feet tall and encroaching on the frontier of adolescence. He is well on his way to being a fine young man. I watch him move through his world and I just want everything to slow down. He teeters on the abyss of puberty. He has been such an excellent boy that I long desperately for that little boy to hang around just a bit longer.
And the girl, his sister – the four year old who I am certain will some day be a pharaoh somewhere; I watch her and it is obvious that she is growing by leaps and bounds. The pajamas she got for Christmas are now fitting her about like they are clamdiggers. Two weeks ago I stood at the bottom of the stairs and watched her descend early on a Saturday morning. My brain literally came to life in my head and, as if it had a separate personality, began hammering away on every frequency shouting to me an urgent message to remember that moment, to freeze its quiet and rare beauty forever in some less traveled part of my brain. There she stood, stuffed animal and pillow in arms and slippers on feet she tip-toed down the stairs, gave me a hug, and whispered “good morning daddy, I love you. How’dya sleep/”
Again I told myself to stretch out time, play the four corner offense, use every second of life’s shot clock to my advantage. I cannot believe the great good fortune I have to just share in the beauty of these two kids.
So it was this morning when we all awoke to the news of Japan
I couldn’t get over the haunting vision of that mass of debris moving relentlessly in slow but unstoppable motion across the Japanese countryside. It reminded me that there is no stopping nature. There is no pause button while you gather your thoughts, collect your wits, or rearrange your plan. Living is doing, loving is a deliberate commitment, and legacy is a luxury not all are guaranteed.
So today, in the shadow of great suffering and loss of life in Japan, my only plan is to kiss those two little farts squarely on their faces, tousle their hair, hug them like there is no tomorrow and to let them stay up munching popcorn until their mom says it’s way too late for little people to be up. Tomorrow we wake up to a day of ballet, and baseball camp, and then a family outing to the movies. Because what we do becomes what we are, and what we are eventually becomes what we were. So today we will honor those in Japan
We’ll laugh and hug and share inside jokes. And that will be the only plan. The solitary mission – to revel in each other. Because today is all that any of us are ever promised – no matter how much we wish for it to slow down, to stop, to live on forever unchanged. Today is the best chance we’ll ever have to be the best we can be to each other.
Wherever you are today, thanks for stopping in and sharing this moment with me and my family. I hope you are well and that those you hold dear are safe and free from harm. Wherever you are today, I hope you take a minute or two to find the best you can be to those you love, and then to make it a plan to be that.
Dennis
smalltwondad@hotmail.com
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) – This is the United Methodist Church’s disaster response organization, and is one of the best church-based response groups in the world. Donations can be accepted through the International Disaster Relief fund.
Red Cross: The American Red Cross, according to its website, have opened up emergency operation centers. Donations to relief efforts can be made here. It may also be appropriate to look into the International Federation of Red Cross, as well. You can also try the Japanese Red Cross Society here. (However, I am not finding a solid place to donate just yet to the Japanese Red Cross, which is understandable.)
AmeriCares: You can donate to relief efforts that are ongoing by AmeriCares by clicking here.
World Relief: You can donate to relief efforts here.
World Vision: According to the organization’s website, the group is preparing to respond to the disaster. You can make a donation by clicking here.
Samaritan’s Purse: The North Carolina-based organization is still considering what relief efforts it will undertake, but you can donate here.
Operation Blessing International: The organization says it has teams standing by to respond. There is a Disaster Relief fund that you can contribute to here.
Giving Children Hope: This California-based organization is in the process of sending emergency relief to Japan. You can donate here.
For a more general list of disaster relief organizations, you can click here.
2 comments:
Oh Dennis, it makes me weep. How I remember those days, the softness, the sweetness. Sometimes it fills your heart to bursting and then, like a flash of lightning, it's gone. In many ways we believe that tomorrow will be like today and mostly it is. But inexorably, there are little changes like the tide going out an inch at a time and we can never go back. Our grandchildren are our one glimpse into the past and the future at the same time. But then, as grandparents, our lips must be sealed. These children are not our charges. They are our rewards for all too brief moments in time. Long days, evenings, pop corn, the burst as they come in from school or play or adventure, all breathless and excited, now are echoes of what once was. It's good that you have written this down. Save it, savor it, and keep it safe for that future day when the boy and the girl will leave the porch and you will become a watcher like me.
Though she does not sign her name, the above post is from my mom. I would recognize her writing anywhere.
I love you, mom - thanks for your gracious and wonderful words; and for just being you - which is also wonderful.
Denny
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