The True Vyne

I'm not altogether better, but my dear husband needed to get back to work. We negotiated Buck dropping the healthy perky Peace off and picking him up after his one co-op school day, while the rest of us stayed home with our various levels of contagiousness. I hear and join into a rousing chorus of coughs from time to time with Tater and Pooh Bear. Wise One is remarkably healthy, so he's a jolly young soul.

The last two days, as Tater felt well enough to rattle out of bed, tiny pre-revolution sparks started flying among he and his brothers. He even slammed a door in anger with me. Yikes! I worried immediately our hard work over the past few months might have somehow vanished.

I'd woken up this morning with the idea that I'd ease into homeschool slowly, because we'd taken off four days last week. However, God changed my mind. I decided maybe Tater was reacting to a week without positive focused attention that he couldn't take in as a sick boy, and I couldn't give as a sick mom. In my morning quiet, it occured to me that if I began by filling my children up with fun time with me, then perhaps those sparks from yesterday could be extinguished more quickly. I think I was onto something, because after I read and talked alone with Tater he started glowing into his better self. He started offering kind things right after like, "Mom, would you like me to make you lunch?" and "Would you like part of the candy bar I won?" I still can't believe the transforming power of just a little love.

I'll end with a touching passage I read with Tater today from one of my all time favorite books The Education of Little Tree. Little Tree is a small boy who lived with his Cherokee grandparents in the mountains after the death of his mother and father. One of the family hounds named ol Ringer died, and these are Little Tree's thoughts after they buried the dog together as a family.

I felt total bad about it, and empty. Granpa said he knew how I felt, for he was feeling the same way. But Granpa said everything you lost which you had loved give you that feeling. He said the only way round it was not to love anything, which was worse because you would feel empty all the time.

Granpa said supposin' ol' Ringer had not been faithful; then we would not be proud of him. That would be a worse feeling. Which is right. Granpa said when I got old, I would remember ol' Ringer, and I would like it- to remember. He said it was a funny thing, but when you got old and remembered them you loved, you only remembered the good, never the bad, which proved the bad didn't count nohow.