Skip to main content

He has an Artistic Eye, a Mechanical Mind and a Meek Heart

The four year old who told me that he would be my little boy forever has grown by leaps and bounds. He is six feet tall, has a deep voice, and broad shoulders. He is just as kind, gentle, and strong as he has ever been. He is a motivated self-starter when he is interested in something. He is an accomplished photographer and a self-taught ATV and motorcycle mechanic. As I was listening to General Conference last month, when Elder Bednar was describing a Christlike characteristic I kept thinking that he was describing my son. He is meek.

He is finishing up his junior year of high school and gets good grades when he likes the class and the teacher. If he doesn't, that is another story. He has taken all the photography classes the school offers and his teacher gave him high accolades by entering him into a few exhibitions. He has received "honorable mention" at one last year and received an award from the district this year. His niche is cars. He goes to the track with Spencer and takes photos there and has been asked to sell some. He has learned how to develop black and white photos at school and does great digital editing work. In addition to his preferred subject, he will use his artistic eye to capture shots of every day items like soda bottles and insulin syringes. He forces the rest of us to view them in a different light. When we went to Alaska he took some stunning landscape shots. 

When he was 15, he worked with Destry through the summer in order to buy himself a 4-wheeler. It was a lemon. And a blessing. Barry, our backyard neighbor came over to check it out and discovered a "blown head gasket." After several months, more than several dollars, along with lots of blood, sweat and actual tears, we all huddled in the garage offering silent prayers that it would start...It did!!! My mommy heart, swollen with pride because of the effort this kid put into fixing it. He would watch a YouTube video then head out to the garage. He consulted with Barry a few times along the way, but Taylor did the work himself. Then after that first start, every time he went out riding he came back with something else wrong with it. The blessing was that he learned how to rebuild an engine and carburetor. He has since purchased two non-functioning motorcycles, fixed them and sold them for a profit. He has also fixed up another 4-wheeler and is deciding whether to keep that one or his original one. 

He has been a good help to Destry in his construction business and was recently hired by a bike shop. He had no prior experience, but the owner loves him. He learned quickly how to make repairs and he came home a few days ago and reported that he assembled a $9,000 bike--yikes! I'd be afraid to touch it. 

Taylor is a patient, long-suffering survivor. He has survived life-long food allergies and asthma as well as diabetes for eight years. Next year he will have had that dreaded disease for half his life, and yes, he remembers what it was like without it. He has also survived being Spencer's brother, which is no small feat! ;)

He is obedient and submissive. When he was around seven or eight and had terrible eczema, I would "slick him up." We had been doing it for years. It meant slathering him in Vaseline or Aquaphor. He tried to tell me that it made his skin burn and turn red. I dismissed him thinking his skin was just extra sensitive. Even though he mentioned it to me, he never fought or threw any kind of fit about it. He just stood there and let me do it. One day, I only got him about half done then got distracted by some other mothering need. He came to me and showed me the difference between the arm that had been "slicked" and the one that hadn't. The one that had definitely looked worse. This was not one of my best mothering moments and I felt horrible! He had been telling me this for some time and I wouldn't listen. I learned a valuable lesson that day and he frankly forgave me. I still feel a twinge of guilt from time to time and continue to apologize. He takes it all in stride. 

He is also a peacemaker. Whenever someone is sad or frustrated, he quietly comforts them. More than once he has sheltered the girls when Spencer is having a bad moment. He does not get offended by ignorant people. People who know nothing about any of his conditions may say things that would offend weaker souls and he just shrugs it off. I know people who get up in arms when Hollywood or others make light of various medical conditions. He can laugh it off. He keeps me grounded and helps me not be as stressed about him as I could be. If you want to read more about Taylor's meekness I encourage you to read David A. Bednar's 2018 General Conference talk, "Meek and Lowly of Heart." 

Taylor is my hero and I sometimes wonder how I got to be his lucky mom. He is also imperfect and challenges me in ways other than just the keeping him alive stuff. He is stubborn and unbribable. If he wants to learn or do something he does it and achieving the goal is its own reward. But if he is not interested in it no amount of bribing or grounding have any affect on him. He is introverted and hard to talk to sometimes. It's hard to be mad at him because he just takes it.  I feel like he was given the right personality to deal with his challenges. His challenges are not limitations to him and I can't wait to see what else he will put his mind to next. He is a package deal and I love all of him.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I Should Have Known, But I Didn't or It's Been a Year

I began this blog one year ago this month.  This is my 31st post.  That puts me at exactly 2.4 posts per month.  Not a world's record, but a personal best.  Up from the zippo I had before.  I started it so that my children would have some record of their family's life.  I haven't been very good at journal keeping in the past.  I have been hit or miss at best.  What I hadn't anticipated was how much I have enjoyed writing and reading this blog.  I have reread my posts, some of them several times.  They have made me laugh, cry and reminisce about my life.  I like to write, so it should not have been such a surprise.  But for some reason or other I didn't realize how much I would benefit from it.  Maybe next year I will average a 3 or even 4 posts each month.  I have ideas and notable life events that I could write about, but we shall see.

Yesterday we had a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad" morning that ended with a Christlike Kindness

Last Saturday morning SHOULD have been an ordinary Saturday morning.  The children have "Saturday chores" that they are required to do before they move on with their day.  There are a few exceptions.  This morning Spencer had an exception because his scout troop led by Destry went on a rock climbing expedition.  It was a gorgeous day!  They had a great time thanks to Destry's former missionary companion and friend, Dallin Ward, who shared his talents and expertise with the group.  Spencer was the star as I was told.   For those of us who stayed behind, it should have been chore time after they left.  They were all playing together nicely for a while and I just let them.  It is fun to see them getting along and playing well.  At around 10:00 I reminded them  to get get started because Emma had her first basketball game of the season and Estelle had a birthday party that both started at 1:00.  That should have been no problem. ...

It Has Only Taken Her 9 Years, but Estelle Finally Sleeps All Night Long In Her Own Bed: She Can Do Hard Things!

Estelle will turn the big 9 on May 4th. She has only slept through the night in her own bed a few times each year for her entire life until about two months ago. After spending a lot of energy worrying and bribing and consequencing I finally surrendered and figured that she would sleep through the night whenever she was ready. I put a pillow and blanket on my bedroom floor and told her to just lay herself down there. That worked for a couple of years until she decided a year ago that she would get in bed with Emma instead. While that did not bother me at all, Emma was not too fond of that arrangement. After a fair amount of understandable crankiness from Emma, Estelle was informed that she either needed to remain in her own bed or sleep on someone's floor. She has been more partial to Emma's floor lately, but after having slept in a bed all night she would rather do that. A few months before she turned seven I thought I had the sure thing for motivating her. Destry had put i...