Too Busy To Play Until It's Too Late

My precious boy with the golden hair 

Came up one day beside my chair

And fell upon his bended knee

And said, "Oh, Mommy, please play with me!"

I said, "Not now, go on and play;

I've got so much to do today."

He smiled through tears in eyes so blue

When I said, "We'll play when I get through."

But the chores lasted all through the day

And I never did find time to play.

When supper was over and dishes done,

I was much too tired for my little son.

I tucked him in and kissed his cheek

And watched my angel fall asleep.

As I tossed and turned upon my bed,

Those words kept ringing in my head,

"Not now, son, go on and play,

I've got so much to do today."

I fell asleep and in a minute's span,

My little boy is a full-grown man.

No toys are there to clutter the floor;

No dirty fingerprints on the door;

No snacks to fix; no tears to dry;

The rooms just echo my lonely sigh.

And now I've got the time to play;

But my precious boy is gone away.

I awoke myself with a pitiful scream

And realized it was just a dream

For across the room in his little bed,

Lay my curly-haired boy, the sleepy-head.

My work will wait 'til another day

For now I must find some time to play. 

- Dianna (Ars. Joe) Neal

Relearning A Boy's Way

A father became upset about the time his six-year-old son took to get home from school.  He determined to make the trip himself to see how long it should take to cover that distance.  He concluded that twenty minutes maximum was enough, but his son was taking well over an hour.

Finally the father decided to walk with his son.  After that trip the man said, "The twenty minutes I thought reasonable was right, but I failed to consider such important things as a side trip to track down a trail of ants. . . or a stop to watch a man fix a flat. . . or the time it took to swing around a half-dozen telephone poles. . . or how much time it took for a boy just to get acquainted with two stray dogs.

"In short, I had forgotten what it is like to be six years old."

- submitted by Don E. McKenzie, Parables, Etc. (October 1993)

Find Time, Even If It's Only A Few Minutes

John Erskine, the well-known author, professor, and lecturer, once wrote that he learned the most valuable lesson of his life when he was fourteen.  His piano teacher asked him how much he practiced and how long at a stretch.  The boy replied that he practiced for an hour or more at a time.

"Don't do that," warned the teacher.  "When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches.  Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them--five or ten minutes before school, after lunch, between chores.  Spread the practice throughout the day, and music will become part of your life."

Erskine stated that the observance of this advice enabled him to live a comparatively complete life as a creative writer, outside his regular duties as an instructor.  He wrote most of Helen of Troy, his most famous work, on streetcars while commuting between his home and the university.

- Roy B. Zuck, The Speaker's Quote Book (Christian Literature Crusade, 1997)