TheBanyanTree: Organized

[Maria Gibson]

My sweet sunny bunny.  Seventeen and so very mature anymore.  It takes 
my breath away to love him and watch him grow into one of the finest 
human beings I've ever known.  I can hardly even say, sometimes, 'that 
kid,' he has developed such a sense of self.  Who he is, where he is 
going.  What he needs to do to get there.  He is very nearly self 
sustaining.  My only saving grace as I love him and watch him and yearn 
for all of life's treasures to be earned by him, is that it is still a 
near process.  Not finished, not fully cooked and developed.  Thank God; 
I need him for just a little longer.

He went on a camping trip last week with friends and their parents.  He 
had a great time but was apparently thinking about his life on the way 
home and what needed to be done in this time before all hell breaks 
loose in his schedule.  In a month school will be starting but even 
before that, in about three weeks comes band camp and Leader's Club and 
the karate school reopens and in two weeks we go on a family vacation 
for a week.  He had to come home and contact his boss and remind her 
that he has times he can't work and so he was making phone calls and 
crossing things off a list he made on a scrap of paper in the car on the 
way home.

You should see his calender, the one he keeps and maintains himself.  
Most days have something written in them and when the hell I spoke off 
breaks loose in the way I hinted at, most days have more than one thing 
and sometimes more than two.  It is exhausting to watch him manage it.  
I can't manage it.  I was done way over a year ago.  He manages it, he 
deals with the frustrations and prioritizing, he backtracks and makes 
other arrangements and takes care of everything.  He tells me where to 
be, when, just so I can see him do the things he loves to do.  No one 
has pushed him to do this, he just does it.  He thrives on it.  He is 
intelligent and takes a break and spends time doing a simple nothing 
sometimes because he knows he needs a recharge.  He stresses at times, 
we talk about it, he listens to us when we say something has to give and 
change.  Every now and a great then, we have to step in and make a 
decision for his own sanity but it is really rare now.

So, this list.  He had stuff written in his scrawling, tiny handwriting, 
one word but enough to let him know what needs to be done.  Contacts, 
he's gotta pick some up.  Sax, it needs fixing.  Shoes, need some before 
school starts.  Whoa, what's this?  Two of his friend's names, one 
scratched off the list, the other not.  I love it.  Mostly I love it 
because it shows an odd child-like innocence, putting friend's names on 
a list so as not to forget to contact them.  And then scratching one off 
because he talked to that one.  The other one is still waiting for a 
phone call, I guess.

Whew.  I've got him for just a little longer.  Just a little.

Maria