Lily Barnes
English 0300 – Tues./Thurs. 8-10:00 a.m.
Illustration Essay
Spring 2011
The Little Things
Have you ever taken time from your busy life and thought about what is really important to you? Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact on our very existence. We never stop to think of a giant oak emerging from a tiny seed or of another life being the center of our own. Even with the adversity of the world today, it is possible for one person to have a significant impact on another person. In my case that person is my son. This child I am to teach and love has somehow enlightened me about patience, endurance, and affection; thus, he is the most significant person in my life.
Taking the role of teacher, my newborn illustrated the most important underestimated rule of parenting and life, patience. That valued lesson was taught one morning after I spent numerous hours preparing for church. Upon arrival, I felt my outfit too cute to have a burp cloth covering it up. Without consideration, I left the burp cloth and diaper bag inside the car.

Astonishingly, not only did my son spit up but also chunky, slimy, foul blob ran down the back of my dress. As I returned to the car horrified and embarrassed, I thought to myself, “This is beyond belief.” I was mistaken; the unbelievable part was still to come. I locked my keys in the car. While we waited for a set of spare keys to arrive, my son entertained me by singing his ear piercing screeches of hunger. Fifteen brief minutes felt like fifteen years. After that ordeal, waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic does not seem to have the same intolerable effect.
Patience. Lesson learned.
In addition, my son, along with my endurance skills, flourished and grew like a seedling.
Once when he was about a year, he became very sick. It seemed as if the to him the world was coming to an end. I tried countless ways to get him to sleep; I was on the verge of my breaking point. Nothing seemed to settle him down until I began rocking him in an old rocking chair.
After a few hours, I felt as though my arms were literally going to fall off. He resisted defiantly when I attempted to put him down. I never knew I could somehow maneuver myself in an old wooden chair and actually get some rest. My aching arms and neck served as a trophy from the endurance lesson I had been taught the previous night. However, happier times were to come.
Furthermore, these happier times came as my son taught me about affection. A strange thing happened once while he played with his cousins. For some odd reason, he stopped what he was doing, dropped his toy, and hugged me. After our deep, spontaneous embrace, he returned to his playmates as if nothing happened. My mind went blank trying to grasp what had just happened. At that moment, I could not figure out what triggered his actions.

Afterward, I realized I had never taken time to experience nor comprehend his affection toward me. He had inadvertently showed me how to display affection.
In an age of high-tech computers and gadgets, we sometime forget the small things that help keep our sanity. My son’s small role in the world has a great magnitude and relevance in my life. Like a small seed, nurtured by a mother’s love, he will continue to grow and learn.
Most of all, he will continue to teach.