FAMILY

Poetry is not as popular today as it used to be in times gone bye. However, it is still just as an important and effective means of communication as it always has been. When I was growing up in Boise, Idaho and attending elementary schools there, poetry was really important. Students were required to memorize poems and lines of poetry as an active requirement in all their English and Literature classes. Most of that sort of thing has since been forgotten and no longer required. Society and educated intelligence are the big losers from such a reduction of requirements.

Life is all too short here on earth. Although there are occasions when times seem to drag on painfully slow, for the most part it seems to fly by and leave all of us growing too old, too fast.

Author Bob Benson realized what I am attempting to tell you many years ago, and authored a poem that strikes at the heart of the matter of passing time. I would encourage you to read and reread this special communication and always take the time to slow down your pace of living and start more fully enjoying the Precious Present.

The time clock of life never slows down, stops, or backs up. Time cannot be saved, invested, or retrieved once it has passed. Carefully read and heed the poetic words and message from Mr. Bob Benson:

Laughter in the Walls

I pass a lot of houses
  on my way home.

Some pretty,
  some expensive,
  some inviting.

But my heart always skips a beat
  when I turn down the road
  and see my house
  nestled against the hill.

I guess I’m especially proud
  of the house
  and the way it looks
  because I drew the plans myself.

It started out large enough for us–
  I even had a study,
  two teenage boys
  now reside in there.

And it had a guest room,
  my girl and nine dolls
  are permanent guests.

It had a small room
  Peg had hoped
  would be her sewing room,
  the two boys swinging
  on the Dutch door
  have claimed this room as their own.

So it really doesn’t look right now
  as if I’m much of an architect.
  But it will get larger again.

One by one they will go away–
  to work, to college, to service,
  to their own houses.

And then there will be room–
  a guest room, a study,
  and a sewing room–
  Just for the two of us.

But it won’t be empty.
  Every corner, every room,
  every nick in the coffee table
  will be crowded
  with memories.

Memories of picnics,
  parties, Christmases,
  bedside vigils, summers,
  fires, winters, going barefoot,
  leaving for vacation, cats,
  conversations, black eyes,
  graduations, first dates,
  ball games, arguments,
  washing dishes, bicycles,
  dogs, boat rides,
  getting home from vacation,
  meals, rabbits,
  and a thousand other things
  that fill the lives
  of those who would raise five.

And Peg and I
  will sit quietly by the fire
  and listen to the
  laughter in the walls.”

Walk Plainer, Daddy

Walk a little plainer, Daddy! I know that once you walked this way many years ago, and what you did along the way I’d really like to know; for sometimes when I am tempted, I don’t know what to do. So walk a little plainer, Daddy, for I must follow you.

Blessings and Encouragement to You………………….

Sample from Stories That Will Bless Your Heart Section