Children – Al's Painting and Poetry

How Do You Define Kindness?

The subject of this painting were the blossoms of an African Tulip tree. The blossom forms a large cup that catches rain water. Birds coming to drink from these cups carry the pollen from one blossom to another. Thus, by providing a service to the birds, the flower receives service in return. It is by giving and sharing that we grow in loving and caring.

Things of Joy
By Al Vester
I shopped for gifts early this year
And gathered a sack full of good cheer.
I polished up memories of things I’d seen,
Until they gleamed so bright and clean.
Things of joy and boundless mirth
Showing to all for all their worth:
The diamond sparkle of falling rain,
The shadow smile of the old moon’s wane,
The billows and curls from a chimney at dawn,
The husky smell of a new mown lawn,
A sapphire sky over an emerald sea,
The tender smile that you gave me.

What is Kindness?

Kindness is most easily described by the impact that it has on individuals in our society. Continue reading “How Do You Define Kindness?”

Marriage, the miracle of separate beings becoming one

Forty-two years ago, this month, a miracle began in my life. A lovely, intelligent, and gifted young lady became my wife. Just prior to our wedding, I wrote the following poem called the Treasure Chamber.

The Treasure Chamber
By Al Vester

The ruddy glow of life ran from the ruby walls
Into the swirling darkness of the outer entrance hall.
A tune is singing softly, a pure and simple call,
To beckon someone worthy to come within the hall.

Come, behold the treasures earned by years of work
Of faith, integrity, honor, and courage not to shirk.
For within this ruby hall with ivory beams over-bending,
Resides a heart that’s filled with hope, a soul that needs befriending.

Come my bride, my joy and life, open doors to exaltation;
Come within and be my wife by a priesthood coronation.
God’s the one who lit this chamber, built its throne and made its treasure.
All that’s good is His and mine, and now through Him it shall be thine.

Why choose marriage?

It always seems miraculous to me that women can and do put up with men. Most women are softer, gentler, and more emotionally connected with the world around us. Continue reading “Marriage, the miracle of separate beings becoming one”

How long should a parent worry about their adult child?

Most jobs require some prior training or experience, but the job of being a parent consists almost entirely of on-the-job training, and it continues for years. Then, about the time we have developed the parenting skills that we had hoped for earlier in life, we become unemployed. Our children grow up and start their own families. This poem tires to express a parent’s concern as a young one leaves the nest.

THE FLEDGLING’S FLIGHT
Al Vester
The fledgling fluttered, faltered, flapping fiercely in the air
While parent doves feared their love would easily be snared.
The fledgling feels the freedom of being on her own.
The father fears the foes of fledglings flying all alone:
The calculating cat crouching under camouflage of leaves,
The hovering hawk hunting high above the tangle of the trees,
The power line with channeled lightning singing in its core,
The hungry hunter heavy with his weaponry of war.
All these threats to wing and feather known to silence songs so fair,
All unknown by fledgling flying now in blissful unawares.

The tiny, tired, feathered father watches taut with tender care,
Knowing that his fledgling’s freedom trembles in the tepid air.
For the hope of growing children is the time when they will part.
Yet the fee for fledgling’s freedom is a parent’s broken heart.
Gone the time of sheltered nesting in the gentle summer breeze.
Now the time of bitter lessons as the leaves begin to freeze,
Teaching her that life takes scratching, digging in the weeds.
There the tedious toils train her in the filling of her needs.
Meals no longer stuff themselves down her open beak
And life is not considerate of the timid, slow, or weak.

Departing home

Throughout childhood, a child’s parents are preparing him or her for the time when they will be ready to stand on their own as adults. Continue reading “How long should a parent worry about their adult child?”

What is the Worth of a Child?

The Tender Soul
By Al Vester

The clay of the mind is soft and fine
In youth’s well watered garden.
Impressions hold both quick and bold
And soon the mold does harden.

Loving words add gentle curves
But hate is rough and jagged.
The rounded soul all joy beholds,
But shunned are the cold and cragged.

The tender soul will ever know
The path you have sought to guide him.
So teach with care those children dear,
You have power to free or bind them.

A Child’s Worth

To look into the face of a new born child is to see the greatest of all gifts in the lives of a young couple. Continue reading “What is the Worth of a Child?”