Bar Mitzvah

Investing in my grandson's life and world
Is ‘cool’ indeed, amidst my current whirl;
To share with him the little bit I know
Of camping, music, art – on trips we'd go;

The years of swimming pools each Friday night,
Before I had the problem with my sight;
The chats, and jokes, and listening to him read;
The plots of garden, indoor garden seed;

The concerts, movies, shows, and sports events;
The camping trips, (the bear that time we went);
The Christmas eves, and the gifts on Christmas day;
The family weekends – all the games we played;

The walks and bike trips, climbing-structures near;
Our games of tag, and freight-trains that we cheered;
First steps, and yarns of ‘tortoise and the hare’;
Our swapping e-mails, music we've compared;

Computer games, and simulating flight;
The hide and seek, the chess, and cooking nights;
At Christmas, setting up the crèche and tree;
The thousand toys you brought for me to see.

For every Friday night near thirteen years,
We journeyed several hours when you'd come here;
It changed a lot with sister halfway through –
Enriched with laughter, fun, and April Fool.

Tonight I heard that crackle in your voice,
Which signals changes coming for young boys –
That quantum leap – like walking, talking, thought;
Like science fairs, and school events we've watched;

Like rising height; the fencing, judo, band;
The concepts in your mind; your gentle hand;
Excitement new each stage you've entered in;
The dances fast (or slow – retreating – grin);

Your friends, and biking out beyond your block;
The snippets we have heard with others’ talk.
And now with teenage years approaching soon
Constricted-land will open giving room –

For world of new transitions, higher hills
To climb, explore, bringing threats and thrills;
The easing off of shelter from the storm;
And exploration – paths our feet have worn;

And then those paths of life each gets to make,
Which hold the chance of life – some prize to take –
No guarantees, but chance to enter in
The struggles of mankind, with good and sin;

A place within community, a part
To play out as you wish with mind and heart;
Perhaps someday with family of your own,
A chance to laugh and cry, and make a home.

But now – this day of changing of your voice,
Before more changes come, and days of choice,
I stop this night and celebrate our past,
And thank you for investments that will last.

For you have added so much to my life,
These six or seven hundred Friday nights;
These few short lines can scarcely touch my goal
Of stating ways you've woven in my soul.

The parting of our ways will carry on –
It's how life is from days when we were young;
That's good, not bad – for freedom we are built;
We're given feet to walk from mother's milk.

Our world today – one big community,
Which stretches round the globe – so much to see
And do in our short years – a lot of ways
To do our chosen lifestyles, live our days.

Of course it's blessed and cursed by fellow man –
They limit us, yet help us when they can;
They challenge us, demand we play our part;
And give a chance to share a loving heart.

Transitions, hormones, learning-curves, and cars;
Or airplanes, boats, computer-world that's ours,
Will soon fill days with wonderment and fright –
That's fine – some days you'll smile back – like this night.

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