THE ROUND BUNNY BOX
When bunnies are born they must be kept inside
a box. If they leave too soon, they will
die. What takes place in the bunny box
is crucial to their survival when they are finally ready to venture forth. Inside the bunny box, the bunnies are
wrestling and “scrumbling” around with each other - growing stronger each day
from all their interactions with each other. Children are the same.
Little ones, in the important, necessary
confines of the home, wrestle, hit, bite, yell, steal, annoy, cry, pinch,
tickle, play jokes on, chase, get angry, love, laugh, make forts, have secrets,
sing, whine, etc. ---and the learning
begins, learning that will make them one day able to open the front door of
their house, peek out, take a step or two and realize, little by little, that
they are going to be o.k. in that big ol’ world out there. They can go to
school and know what will happen if they steal someone’s pencil or include
someone who is being excluded. They have
already tried everything in “the box” - so now it is not that inviting to be
mean to someone - because they are familiar with the consequences - they
learned all that in the box. The round
bunny box, however, is the ultimate box.
When you walk inside, all you see is circles. There are round dinner
tables......“Guess what grade I got on my math test today?” “Can you come to my
soccer game tomorrow? and family members kneeling in a circle, “Let us Gather
in a Circle and Kneel in Family Prayer and thank our Heavenly Father for the
blessings we all share.” There are
circle games being played, “Do you love your neighbor?” or “Signs,” - and people sitting in a circle, talking and
learning how to live like Jesus Christ
in Family Home Evening. There are rings
on the ring fingers of the Father and Mother who love each other and love their
children. Daddy is twirling Mommy
around in circles while they dance in the living room. The rounder the bunny box the better! We may start out in bunny “box” but all those
hard edges seem to get rounded off with the circle-living inside - and what is
left is a round bunny box “on a roll” along the pathway to heaven.
SIGNS OF LIFE
Open the oven…a bright red ball
No one will answer any phone call
Swimming in milk dumped on the floor
Coats and shoes bursting out the door
Laundry piled high upon the bed
Paint bucket spilling on top your head
Mud tracks across a bright, clean floor
Open a door…hear music roar
Glass window broken by thrown baseball
Wrestling children end up in a brawl
Rubbing the butter all over your face
Stepping in honey all over the place
Applesauce flung up on the walls
Hide and seek players up and down the halls
Chaos and crashing and breaking and sighing
Life at its best is both funny and trying
The “signs of life” are bright and wild
Accompanying the gift of every child
Witness of their stirring soul
Creating stories to be told
Of brilliant life lived full and free
Expanding all possibility
And when life’s song is sung at last
The “signs of life” will bless the past
Treasures rare in the behold
That bless the lives of young and old
….Songs to sing, souls to grow
Hearts to love as life unfolds…
by Karen Nelson
This is good stuff!
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