The light in his eyes is often attributed to his parents, who share the same cerulean shade that dazzles those who meet him. Yet the sparkle isn’t from the ladders of his genes, a submolecular chain of binary that programs so much. In part, this shine is developed from his enthusiasm for this world, his thrill for the hug, the laugh, the song and the lesson. And it’s not just family that makes him rush to the next excitement, mouth ceaselessly agape with joy and wonder. It’s you, a presence of unimaginable care and responsibility that guides him through days rainy and filled with sun, times comfortable and trying.
It was never deemed easy, but it’s easy to forgot the strength of heart it takes every dawn to face new challenges and changes as his personality is forged; an iron under the fires of impossibly overwhelming exposure to a world brimming with new. The sights, sounds, feelings and judgments we all take for granted shape him by the hour into someone unique. And you guide this formation of self with the skilled hands of an expert blacksmith working with the most precious of raw material: a young soul, wide-eyed and trusting – searching your eyes and knowledge for answers to what this is all about. This new animal swimming in the clear water bowl. This murky, sloppy ooze caking his small shoes. These shapes and symbols remarked upon as the basis of some communication that eludes him, but which he desires so passionately to master.
Your heart and tender embrace demonstrates passionately and with such consistency the most key lessons, however, for it’s not knowing a dolphin from a shark that will make him look at the sea, but rather the mystery of it all lying between their differences. He’ll look at the vastness of the deep waters and the infinite sky above, and his head will swirl with questions in all directions. Yet most importantly he’ll be grounded by the knowledge that none of it holds more truth than the beating in his chest. The rest is just details.
His love, care and sweetness which his parents foster as much as they can in their own painfully short time is immaculately tended to by your confident direction. It cannot be appreciated enough for it’s the kindest gift bestowed not only upon a family, but upon a future generation of eyes that could grow jaded and cynical as days pass with less enthusiasm, as skin weathers, height pushes and scars marr once perfect skin.
Keep them bright for as long as possible – make them glow hotter than suns at youth and they will carry this illumination with them longer and stronger than those that tread before. Stoke the fires of joy and creativity. Enhance the priority of love in all things.
It’s what you do each and every day.
And as the sun sets, we look at the day’s end and see newness in him, as well as that shine in his eyes, and we are incredibly thankful that the many tomorrows to come have been set on a proper course by you.
Thank you.