I Took His Hand and Followed
Mrs. Roy L. Peifer
My dishes went unwashed today,
I didn't make the bed,
I took his hand and followed
Where his eager footsteps led.
Oh yes, we went adventuring,
My little son and I...
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the summer sky
We waded in a crystal stream,
We wandered through a wood...
My kitchen wasn't swept today
But life was gay and good.
We found a cool, sun-dappled glade
And now my small son knows
How Mother Bunny hides her nest,
Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.
We watched a robin feed her young,
We climbed a sunlit hill...
Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,
We plucked a daffodil.
That my house was neglected,
That I didn't brush the stairs,
In twenty years, no one on earth
Will know, or even care.
But that I've helped my little boy
To noble manhood grow,
In twenty years, the whole wide world
May look and see and know.
I have this poem framed in our hall way and I need to stop and read it more. I think sometimes we all need to be reminded to stop worrying about all the little things going on in our daily lives and just enjoy the moment with our kids. When they're older we don't want them to remember that we always kept a perfectly clean house, but had no time for them. We want them to remember the T-I-M-E we spent with them, learning and making memories, because it goes by incredibly too fast!
