Passage Fourteen: Waking Children
I wake my children differently.
Nathan and Leila wake up like me,
Rather quickly.
Graham wakes up like his mother,
More slowly.
I rub his back and speak to him,
Allowing him the time he needs
To come around.
I take the extra time with him,
Because he needs it
To wake up feeling good about the day.
He caught a snake this summer,
And we let him keep it as a pet,
But as the summer waned,
We told him he had to let it go.
With a lot of coaxing,
He put it in the grass,
But as it started to slither off,
The tears welled up.
I let him catch his snake
And keep it for a few days more,
And when he let it go again,
He did so happily,
Because he was ready to.
I could have played the game
Of making me the boss
And making him a little man.
I could have, but I did not,
Because the situation
Was not about myself.
There was no contest
And there was nothing to prove.
Yes, the situation was significant,
And there were lessons there,
But they were not about control,
And I was not the teacher.
