My “Wildflowers”

After our tenth child was about eighteen months old, I was reflecting on the “parenting style” that my husband David and I had developed over our years of parenting. Immediately into my mind came a picture of a stagecoach with the drivers (David and me) sitting up on top of the stagecoach holding tightly onto the reins. Out in front of us, there were ten wild horses dragging us along. I laughed out loud and said to myself, “Yes, that’s what it’s like! Our kids are all out in front, and we’re always trying to keep up!”

Then another image came into my mind. It was a beautiful, vividly-colored field of wildflowers. As I reflected on this exhilarating scene, a poem started forming in my mind about my children. I quickly typed it up and gave a copy to each of my ten children for Valentine’s Day that year. I called it, “My Wildflowers.”

My children really weren’t wild, runaway horses, but they were definitely strong-willed, independent, free-thinking individuals. In other words, perhaps…wildflowers?

Our wildflower count grew to eleven. One time, David and I had a special dinner at a restaurant to tell all our children how special they were to us. We went to a florist’s shop and chose eleven different colored, unique flowers. At the end of the dinner, we let them each choose one flower to take home with them. It was a sweet time. Wildflowers.

I recently found a copy of my original “My Wildflowers” poem among some of Jonathan’s other papers. I had always wanted to re-write this poem because I wrote it in a hurry, and I knew it still needed some more work. Twenty-six years have now gone by. After finding Jonathan’s copy of my poem, I finally rewrote it! Here is the new version:

w i l d f l o w e r s

i have a bouquet of wildflowers
grown in fields of love
each a different color
glory from above

i love my bouquet of wildflowers
all so different and unique
talking, laughing, singing
playing hide-and-seek

i carry my bouquet of wildflowers
in my happy heart each day
dancing in my thoughts
joyful when I pray

i know my bouquet of wildflowers
will be my eternal friends
wild…free…blossoming
my eleven children

alison
jonathan
andrew
benjamin
marie
kathryn
elizabeth
rebekah
angela
matthew
michelle