Up A Tree

Every afternoon when I collect Burton from school, I am met with the same question each time

“Mummy, please can we go to the park?”

Then I usually get one or two of his school friends who live in the same village as the school is situated in, ask me if Burton can please go to the park!!! Of course on a dry day I will take both boys there, but more often than not it can take so long to leave the school premises that we often do not get to the park! This is because there are a couple of trees just by the entrance to the school grounds, and most home times Burton and his friends insist on havinig a climb! A couple of them can do this unassisted, but one does need a leg up – usually by me for some reason, he always prefers to ask me instead of his Mummy!

Last week I thought I would take some photos because the sun was out and it was quite warm and clearly there was no rush to get to the car (again!). I took a few of Burton and when I got home to look at them on my phone, I found this one.

I just adore the way his arms drape around that branch, inadvertedly making the same ‘v’ shape as the tree branches he is holding. I love the clean, bright white of his school tee shirt contrasting against the dark green of the tree trunk, branches and fence wire behind him. I love how he hung his bag over the lower branch of the tree waiting for him while he played in it.

But most of all, I love his face. I love how handsome he looks here, his sunny blonde hair and his fresh face – still full of so much innocence despite him now being a school boy. He also looks so grown up in his school uniform and so smart, which is a surprise actually as most times when I pick him up he is covered in food, grass/mud and snot stains!!  And yet sat in that tree the boy inside of him, the one who loves adventure and has an adundance of energy has been allowed to break free from the constraints of the classroom and be himself. The determination he has to have to climb that tree no matter what – and to not give up but to keep trying until he suceeds.

I hope he will use this determination in life – in his education to always try and to always do the best he can do, and to learn all that he is able. Seize the opportunities that life throws his way with a passion and to embrace it. I hope outside of school he will want to push himself in the hobbies and activities/sports he decides to participate in and to want to better himself. I do not say this in a ‘pushy mummy’ sense, but just to make him see that it is him and only him who can shape his life and get from it what he wants. My Mum always told me, just do the best you can. As long as you always do the best that you can, then that is all I can ask of you. I have never forgotten those words and I want my boys to do the same.

I look at this photo capturing an ordinary moment that I know children up and down the country do also on a regualr basis, and it both amuses me and makes me feel proud. It also takes my breath away because I just look at Burton here and find it hard to believe that he is this big and this age and at school.

Time needs to slooooooooow down.