B'chatzrot Elokeinu yafrichu, In the courtyards of our G-d they will blossom

Trees
One day, tiny chartreuse leaves, teeny flower buds appear
Soon, the tree is in full bloom
Then the blossums fall from the tree, the leaves turn dark green
Mature

Kids
One day tiny, crying
Soon, crawling, walking, running, talking
After a long winter, the child is finally in full bloom

Okay, teenagers are a lot more argumentative than trees

But are our children not "reishit tz'michat g'ulateinu", the beginning of the sprouting of our redemption"
for their parents?

When dark green,
leaves are full-grown.
When full-grown,
the child has flown.

Finally, the whole place to ourselves again!
Peace and quiet, at last!

But sometimes,
I miss the joys
that went with the noise


This poem, whose title can be found in Psalm 92 (Mizmor Shir l'Yom haShabbat, A Psalm, A Song for the Sabbath Day), is dedicated to our son, a Physics major and Japanese minor, who, in his copious spare time (cough, cough), writes for his college's student magazine. It's also dedicated to all those college and high school students whose blogs I so enjoy reading, and to their parents.