On a boy's growth

Independence Days. | One For Each Hand: I suppose there comes a moment in every mama’s life when she realizes small hands are no longer meant to be held so tightly. And surely each one of us had that moment in our own life when we first realized that our own heart actually beat independently, unattached to the mother ship. I just expected this moment to be such a big deal. I thought the angels would be singing from on high, and tears would dramatically make their way down my heartbroken cheeks. But instead what I feel at the end of this summer of independence, this summer where my two small boys grew up just a little unexpectedly, is a feeling of pure joy and happiness to my innermost core. These boys of mine are growing into solid little men: tenacious, tough (and tender, yet), and with little lion-butterfly spirits. I take to heart something Frederick Douglass once said: It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Amen to that.