CHILDREN'S BOOKS

 While cleaning house ahead of our family’s summer birthday party

dusting every cranny…all the nooks…

I paused as I began to dust a shelf that housed old children’s books.

Children’s books we haven’t read in years…as so much time’s elapsed…since we read them to our children…and grandchildren…when they still fit upon our laps.

Some books we read only once…some had messages to impart

some we read so many times…we knew them all by heart.

Some books still looked as good as new…while others showed their age

as I opened each one gingerly…as I reminisced through every page

From Dr. Seuss to Little Golden books…to Peter Pan who flew among the stars…From Goodnight Moon and the Velveteen rabbit…to Where the Wild Things Are.

Each book not only contains a story…but is a memory by itself…

which is why, together, they have found a treasured place upon our shelf.

Although these books were essential to our children’s and grandchildren’s growing wings…we haven’t read to them in years…as they’ve flown on to other things..

I can’t help but think, however, these books remember when our children and grandchildren were a little smaller…and when they come to visit…

each book stands up a little taller.

Thinking about another day…another time…way back when…

hoping to be noticed…opened up…and read again.

Waiting fo the day these now grown-ups and their lives again shall overlap…

Perhaps when they read them to their children 

and their grandchildren…

while they’re still young enough to fit upon their laps.