Bird Droppings February 20, 2026
It has been a long time, and yet, it is only a moment.

I was sitting along the edge of reality one evening a few days back after having a bad day with bronchitis and asthma. Somewhere, I was in my backyard, listening to the wind as it blew through the pines; it seemed the pines made a better sound when the oaks had all their leaves in place. It was a circular thing as the wind blew around the tops of the trees surrounding my house. The sound and movement in the air were exhilarating. It has been nearly forty-three years since our oldest son was born. As a parent and now a grandparent, I wondered if we have done all we should or could. I think parents question themselves often. I think parents always wonder whether I did the best job I could. Perhaps even thinking about what I could have done differently? As I ponder, I am very proud of my three children, and now daughters-in-law, three grandsons, and two granddaughters. Hopefully, they will know that whatever roads they travel in life, we will be there for them if they need us, and I am sure they will be happy and successful.

“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” William D. Tammeus

I have been to the nurseries at the local hospitals since my wife gave birth to all three sons, and when my sisters, numerous friends, and now nieces and nephews all had children. A few weeks ago, I watched my nephew, granddaughter, grandnieces, and grandnephews while we ate. Several are still babies, and great-aunts, great-grandmothers, and grandmothers take turns holding them. Great grandma was working on getting a photo of all of them together and trying to get fourteen or so little ones in a confined space for enough time to get one picture with all faces looking forward is quite an effort.

“It’s not only children who grow. Parents do, too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they watch us see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, I.” Joyce Maynard

I have watched my brothers and sisters grow as they raised their children and grandchildren. I have witnessed firsthand my wife and me growing up and raising our children, and now the changes taking place with a grandbaby. There are challenges and pitfalls, those moments that we will never live down. I recall a little spat between my middle son and youngest at Disney World when the middle son, while my wife was watching our ride to Discovery Island, karate-kicked the youngest, and the youngest would holler and hit his brother. The latter was claiming innocence to his mother. After three times of their little interaction, I interceded even though I had been videotaping the whole scene; watching it now is quite humorous. Even now, my middle son denies any wrongdoing, saying I altered the film.

“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” Robert Fulghum

We so often use the term “setting an example.” We, as parents, have that responsibility, and as teachers, it is a double-edged sword; often, there is no time to waste.

“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939

I recall my wife coming home from the hospital years ago when she first became a nurse. She was working in GYN-OB and had delivery and nursery in her unit. One day, she told me of a thirteen-year-old mother whose twenty-six-year-old mother was there, and her thirty-nine-year-old grandmother was also there. Our kids see the examples we set daily and try to emulate them. Watching my granddaughter try to imitate us as we make faces or stick out our tongues is amusing, and her faces as she tries and mimics. Sadly, children are always watching, and our behaviors beyond making faces are also seen.

“Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children.” Mignon McLaughlin

I often think back to walking down the hallways of the high schools where I taught. I am made aware of this with so many students pregnant, some married, or soon-to-be.

“Deciding to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone

I sit quietly in my dining room at home, reflecting on parenthood and teaching. Today, I wonder what direction the wind will blow. Across the nation, teachers, parents, and students want an excellent educational system. Sadly, some seek profit, not considering that children are at stake, just simply seeing dollar signs. Article after article, research after research, show and indicate today’s reform will not work. Creating schools that can eliminate some aspects through a charter, or raising stakes so high through testing that students are simply learning to take a specific test rather than the material of that subject, creates pitfalls and chasms that may not be avoidable in the future. So, in a few weeks, my oldest son turns forty-two, and it is hard to believe as I hold my tiny grandson that he was once just as small. As I finish today, so much is in the news worldwide, which is saddening. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your heart, and always give thanks. Namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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