Do you remember when all you needed was a little patch of green grass and a big balloon?
My fella sang to his big orange balloon - a squeaking, rollicking song about how his balloon was big, and it was orange and it was his and not the brothers'.
He also peered through the balloon and then stepped back, looked through again, and stepped back again. He did this over and over, smiling and entirely delighted that the world could go from green to orange, just like that.
He wondered if he let go of the string, would the balloon go all the way to the moon?
He jerked the string to make it dance.
He spun, and giggled, trailing his balloon behind him, and then he sat, his big orange balloon at his side, and he sighed, and he explained to the chickens that the word "lelium" just means, "special flying air."
He told me, "the chickens don't know about stuff like I do."
True enough.
True enough.
There are some moments, moments like these, that these little men of mine just break my heart and send it soaring all at once.
Little boys grow too quickly, and balloons, they never last - oh but what simple, perfect joy they each bring while we have them!
