Eyes squinted
Lips pursed and pouted
Arms crossed hugging his chest
Argumentative words
Angry
Head buried
In hands that cup her face
Tears streaming hot across her reddened cheeks
Words spoke in staccato
Dramatic

I may not cross my arms
Or bury my head to cry
But
I
still
get
angry
And
sometimes
I
am
dramatic

Childlike or Grown up
It's about our expression
Learning to cope
There are a lot of grown ups
Who are just, simply
Taller

We all have our moments
And that's okay
But
Instead of looking inside
I need to look UP
And give up
From the inside out
Unfold my spirit of defiance
Cry tears of repentance
And
LIVE
with expression
Worthy of the call

For the love of growing up, raising little grown-ups, appropriate self-expression and being more than tall,
Me

4 letter words

His confession came unprompted and unbridled
"Mom, Dad - I've been tempted to say bad words at recess"
We braced
"What words buddy?" we asked
Guarded,
"I can't say them" he replied
Finally,
"The d-word and the s-word" was all he could bring himself to say
So we braced again
And pushed
"You have to say the words buddy, so we can talk about it" we prompted
With eyes downcast
His lips formed the word
And just above a whisper
He spoke the first four letter word
"dumb"
We held his hands and he gave up the s-word,
"stupid"
Six letters!
Thank Heaven...
Utter relief
My eyes met J's and
I had to stop myself from giggling
I could breathe again
And we talked about it...
How those are words we never use for people
And how God gave us a brain with an incredible capacity to learn and grow our vocabulary and speak life-giving words

For the Love of  innocence, opportunities for conversation, reflection and the capacity to learn and grow to speak life-giving words, always,
ME