A boy crying out for help (everyone needs compassion and love)

Luna Grey and Green Gables Knits - I think I am in love.
In case you are wondering what the centerpiece on our Christmas dinner platter was, check it out here.
It's truly the yummiest soy-free, vegan roast known to mankind!

Little L was ready to go to bed by mid-morning on Christmas. He made it through the day, though.
Oh and notice our wall of boxes in the background.

I apologize for my absence here the past few days. My family and I have been enjoying the Christmas season that has only just begun. We started our celebrating before Christmas day this year but I think that was a nice comfort for my children. K even added some new Christmas traditions, like baking a birthday cake for Jesus. She pretty much made the whole thing herself. We used a box mix since all of our baking supplies weren't unboxed yet. That was a bad move on my part (that I should have seen coming) with the food coloring and sugar - my children went absolutely nuts. Lesson learned. In the future we will be making a homemade cake!

You see the bird seed and the bird feeders we had so much fun making (inspired by Alphabet Glue) pictured above? We had an interesting situation involving those earlier today. I happened to peek outside to see if the birds discovered our feeders on the ground and in the trees. I noted that they hadn't touched them too much yet and then got Little L in the tub for a short bath. When Little L was done with his bath (a mere 5 - 10 mins) I carried him into our bedroom to get him dressed. As I placed him on our bed I noticed a child outside our window in our front yard. He was dumping the bird seed out of our orange feeders and using a stick to take all of the seed and peanut butter off of our carrots. I stepped outside to ask him to please stop but I didn't see him. I mentioned it to Kevin and then grabbed our bucket of seed to refill the feeders. I am a bit obsessive with making sure our feathered friends consistently have food. Kevin went outside and found the boy in our backyard (outside our fence, though) trying to knock the bird seed ornaments out of our tree. The boy saw Kevin and started to walk away. Then Kevin noticed that our two large wooden feeders were knocked over and all the seed dumped out. He looked at the boy and the boy said, "Those were like that already." I was in the process of refilling the feeders in the front and the boy walked past me and said, "I don't know who did that". I didn't even ask him anything but he felt the need to flat out lie to my face (remember I saw him doing it from my window). I was totally baffled. In a non-threatening, calm voice I told him that I watched him from my window and that my children put a lot into making those for their bird friends. He didn't seem bothered by that at all, told another lie and then walked away going from house to house. I am assuming his logic for doing that was so we wouldn't know where he lived and go and tell his parents.

Kevin came back around the front of the house and asked me if something of ours was missing. I said I didn't think so but then he lead me back to the running path behind our house and there was our terracotta bird feeder smashed on the pavement. I was bewildered by this boy's behavior. Why would he purposely destroy things meant to help others and that belonged to other people? At first I was a bit upset over it all. I could tell by the looks on my girls' faces as they watched through the window that they were not too happy, either. Kevin mentioned that boys he grew up with did similar things and that it was just typical boy behavior, but I had never dealt with anything like that before. I remember young boys being a bit rowdy and crazy but not destructive.

I stopped allowing myself to be upset over it all and started looking at it through that boy's eyes and imagined my children in his shoes. This could not be typical boy behavior. I feel like this boy was crying out for help. Maybe not in the nicest, most productive manner, but in the only way he knew how. He was only around C's age and walking around our neighborhood alone. Who knows what he is going through. Maybe his mother or father is deployed right now, maybe his home life isn't the best... I mean really, what do I know? What do any of us know?

I came inside and talked to my children about what they just saw. I told them that the boy was hurting inside and didn't know how to express it (but also let them know that we should not act the way that he did and to always come and talk to us). I apologized to them for their feeders being destroyed and we made a plan to remake them tomorrow.

I decided against talking to his parents about it (at least at this time) for fear of what repercussions that boy might face but hope that maybe I will see him again (maybe not destroying our things next time though) and try to reach out to him, or at the very least show him love and kindness and let him know that the world is a good place.

Above all, every single one of us needs compassion and love.

A boy crying out for help (everyone needs compassion and love)