The Sunshine of My Life

When my children were babies I used to sing Stevie Wonder's You Are the Sunshine of My Life to them as I'd nurse them to sleep, and it was only Jack who would lift his pudgy little hand up in the air in a gesture of "stop" letting me know that my lullaby skills left much to be desired and he preferred to nurse in peace. But this guy in the picture, well singing to him always did the trick and John would easily doze off into a lengthy slumber. It's hard to believe that my first baby will be graduating from high school this year, having grown into quite the fine young man.

On my desk at work, like all proud mothers, I have a collection of photos of all those that I love. My photo gallery includes pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Our Lady of the Gate of the Dawn, some spiritual heroes like Pope Benedict, Archbishop Dolan, and Bishop Hying, my godson Matthew in his Marine uniform, some framed artwork created by my children, and many group shots of my husband, children and I enjoying the good life.

All day long mothers and their children parade in and out of my office and they rarely notice or mention the pictures. But now that I've added John's senior photo to the collection the lack of attention to my pictures has changed. For some reason, when the toddlers get bored with my box of toys, they have all been gravitating to this picture of John. I don't know if it's the colors that stand out or his winning smile that gets their attention. But maybe it's not either of those things, maybe it's the rays of sunshine that emanate from his bright nature that stands out to the little ones. Anyway, I don't think I do enough bragging about my kids on this blog, so here and now that stands corrected.

Enjoy a little Stevie singing the sunshine like it was meant to be sung-who would ever tell him to stop?