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The author,
Skye Thomas is available for life coaching.
For My Littlest Sweetheart
Honey, I know that you wish that I didn’t have to work. I know that at three years old it makes perfect sense to you that I should retire now. You are absolutely right; we should live at the beach and play at McDonalds every day. And yes, it would be wonderful if your big sister and brother didn’t go to school anymore and we all just laughed and played together all day, like you want us to do. You can’t read this or even understand my words today, but someday when you are a bit older you will read this and hopefully you will find it in your heart to forgive us all for not giving you what you want.
First of all, do you know that while your big brother is at school, he almost cries thinking about you looking out the window waiting for the school bus to bring him back home to you? It’s not cool for big teenagers to love little three year old brothers so much, but your brother doesn’t care what’s cool. He stays home on weekends instead of partying with his high school friends just so that the two of you can spend quality time together before he graduates from high school and goes away to college. He makes sure that none of the kids who do drugs or cuss or would in anyway role model bad behaviors are ever invited into your home.
Do you know that your sissy has ended friendships with her classmates because they didn’t think it was cool to have a baby brother always tagging along? Do you know that she won’t tolerate anyone brushing you aside as if you were less then cool just because you are not a teenager like the others? Do you know that she is planning to move away from her friends during the middle of her high school years just so that we could all pack up and follow your big brother to college? She wants you to still be able to see him, and is willing to sacrifice her last two years of socializing with those other kids just so that you and your brother can stay close. Yeah, she loves him too. She plans to go to college within the same area that your brother picks, just so they can both be near you.
You see, you may feel like they abandon you every morning to get on that school bus, but the truth is, it breaks their hearts to think that you’ll just be starting elementary school when they are both leaving home to start their adult lives. They can’t bare to see you go it alone. They won’t ever really abandon you my sweet.
As for me… did you know that every book I write, every article, every word… they are all letters to you, and to the other kids, and to my future grandchildren, and their children too. You see, I imagine what your life would be like if I was no longer alive. What kinds of problems could arise? How would you pick a spouse? How would you pick your jobs? How would you raise my grandchildren? Then I write these letters to you telling you what your mama would do if she were in your shoes. Sometimes I tell you what I did wrong. Sometimes I tell you to pick your own path, but I at least tell you how to pick it too! Even my work here at this computer is really for you and the other children. See, I never really leave you either. It just seems like it as you play with your Lincoln Logs on the floor beside my desk. Why do you think my desk is in the dining room instead of behind a locking door? Because I could never shut you out.
You know, even if we were wealthy and I did not have this great calling to write these articles and books, I’d still have to work. And even if your brother and sister didn’t go to school, they would still have to work too. You see, there is always laundry to be rolled, dishes to be washed, toilets to be scrubbed, and lawns to be mowed. That’s just the way it is. I suppose if we were outrageously rich I could hire someone to do all of that for us and then we really could all play together. But you know what? The three of us are just like you, we get bored, we get restless, we need new adventures, something to expand our minds, our hearts, and our souls. We’d still have to study, to read, to learn, to explore the world. Yes, we could all travel together then, studying the pyramids and maybe we’d even go out in search of Atlantis. And we’d buy a big house on the beach so that we could chat with the starfish every morning and gaze into the sunset every night.
Until then, we’ll run away for play days and we’ll laugh and play together in between the paragraphs and the chapters that I write. Yes, of course you can climb up into my lap one more time. Without you, I’d be a workaholic and wouldn’t remember to take breaks for hugs and kisses. Thank you so much for being here, my littlest angel.
Copyright 2005, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow’s Edge