A Tribute To My Boy

About seven years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful spirit in a handsome little body… who also happens to be sharp as a tack, thoughtful and kind, and just an all-around good person.

Some of my earliest memories of Harrison involve that “other baby”-ness that a newborn takes on in the wee hours of the morning...

When they’re swaddled tightly and the “they” that in waking hours glows from behind their sweet, innocent eyes and cherubic cheeks is hidden behind droopy eyelids and a mouth that falls open like a baby bird in the nest, despite how much they may have fought sleep only ten minutes prior.

In the half-light of his quiet nursery, I used to admire his flawlessly smooth cheeks and dewey forehead, framed by the baby blue of the suede-soft blanket I would wrap him in each night, as I rocked and swayed him to the lullabies I’d been singing him since he was in the womb…

And I would tell him that I just knew he was a good person.

Call me crazy, but I felt that if I instilled in him the deep-seated belief that he was thoughtful, caring, could make good decisions, and was destined to do amazing things in life, he would grow into all these characteristics.

How could he not?

(So far, my little experiment has been working like a charm.) ;-)

Motherhood is something you have to experience to understand fully. Any of you who have children know what I’m talking about. 

I can’t remember who said it, but the quote that describes it best is,

To become a mother is to decide to let your heart go walking around outside your body.

As my heart dashes off to first grade each day in my son’s vibrant little body, I feel so grateful that I’ve been given the opportunity to expand it this way – to let it roam the world and touch others in the unique way in which only Harrison can impart its blessings.

Time will tell whether those whispered nursery room prophecies will be fulfilled, but I’m pretty impressed by what’s transpired so far.

Notice I said “impressed” and not “proud”.

Somewhere along the way I learned that if you tell your child you are “proud” of him, he will grow up believing that his good deeds belong in someone else’s brag book.

No, I am rightly “impressed” with his behavior because, regardless of any influence I may have on him, the decisions he makes moment to moment are his responsibility.

The consequences of those decisions are his reward or his lesson.

I’m grateful that, so far, he seems to be reaping more rewards than lessons. And, like an artist, I throw my heart into my work but, in the end, I have to let it speak for itself.

So, world, I hope you’re enjoying the “Harrison”.

I think he’s quite a masterpiece!

Helen Hunter Mackenzie