Leaves
This weekend was a very trying one for me as a parent. Steven is becoming increasingly willful (and I use "willful" as a way to disguise outright defiance), and every clever parenting tactic seems to fail. He vehementally insists on performing every task by himself, in his own way, and on his own time.
My daycare provider, the wisest woman on the face of the earth, tells me this willfulness is a blessing in Steven's case because he is such a sensitive child, and it's the sensitive ones who need a strong will to survive the society-sanctioned rituals of torture known as elementary and junior high school. Perhaps, but it doesn't make coping any easier.
But I do find solace from time to time. If I look close enough, it is there, falling all around me.
For every leaf, that twirls the breeze,
May useful hints and lessons give;
The falling leaves and fading trees
Will teach and caution us to live.
----from "Autumn" by John Clare, 1821
