Generations

SHUFFLE-SHOON AND AMBER-LOCKS

Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks
      Sit together, building blocks,
          Shuffle-Shoon is old and gray,
              Amber-Locks a little child,
          But together at their play
              Age and Youth are reconciled,
And with sympathetic glee
Build their castles fair to see.

"When I grow up to be a man"
(So the wee one's prattle ran),
      "I shall build a castle so--
            With a gateway broad and grand;
      Here a pretty vine shall grow,
            There a soldier guard shall stand;
And the tower shall be so high,
Folks will wonder, by and by!"

Shuffle-Shoon quoth: "Yes, I know;
Thus I builded long ago!
      Here a gate and there a wall
            Here a window, there a door;
      Here a steeple wondrous tall
            Riseth ever more and more!
But the years have leveled low
What I builded long ago!"

So they gossip at their play,
Heedless of the fleeting day;
      One speaks of the Long Ago
            Where his dead hopes buried lie;
      One with chubby cheeks aglow
            Prattleth of the By and By;
Side by side, they build their blocks--
Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks.

poem taken from Love-Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field

I marvel at the beauty of generations meeting together, knowing each other, and sharing life side by side.  And I am extremely grateful for the many wise and experienced people God has graced mine and my children's lives with.
Thank you for making an effort to invest in us!