Coming of age

 Izzi’s Bat Mitzvah

equilibrium gets punctuated:

child development can lurch

form one stage to another,

small stones accumulate until 

they break free into avalanche,

small physical and psychological changes add up,

enough numbers come together

to click into the combination

that unlocks the door onto a new level,

and the girl steps toward the woman,

I still remember our granddaughter newly-born,

a powerlessness to her tiny body

with a power to the reality of what was coming,

now her bat mitzvah calls to the adult within her,

her strength now equal to carrying the weight

of religious and cultural and family tradition,

to carrying the weight of a self ready

to assert the greatness inherent in the child

which reveals itself in the budding adult,

equilibrium is being punctuated,

as Isabel Jean evolves,

a new order is coming forth.

by Henry H. Walker, proud grandfather

June 5, ‘21

Izzi the next day with Ike